Reigning champ to miss Melbourne Cup after tragic Caulfield fall
Caulfield Cup winner Kingswood will not contest the iconic Melbourne Cup despite earning a golden ticket into the great race.
And reigning champion Half Yours looks set to withdraw from the order of entry after being involved in a fatal fall during the Saturday feature race.
John Allen on Kingswood won the Caulfield Cup. Getty Images
Half Yours ($10) fell to the turf at the top of the straight, dumping jockey Mark Zahra who was thankfully unscathed.
Their fall then brought Ohope Wins ($26) and rider Jye McNeil down, and that horse was sadly euthanised on the track. Both jockeys were taken to hospital but reportedly escaped serious injury.
Half Yours suffered some minor injuries but co-trainer Tony McEvoy has essentially put a line through his Melbourne Cup hopes.
“No decision at the moment but he won’t be able to work for 10 days so I think our campaign is over,” McEvoy told racing.com on Sunday.
“So, as disappointing as that is, we are still overjoyed that he seems OK.
“We are very lucky. He had four staples in a near foreleg and four staples put in an off-hind leg and he had a laceration under his chest, but all pretty superficial stuff in the scheme of things.
“We are just going to get him well. I’d say his preparation is over, but that is not a decision, that’s just a feeling. How can you bounce back after that and run in a Melbourne Cup?”
Half Yours won the Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double last year, becoming just the 13th horse to do so.
He sits sixth in the Melbourne Cup order of entry, but may be withdrawn before it is updated by Racing Victoria this week.
Ohope Wins was sitting 22nd in the order of entry but will now be withdrawn following her death.
And despite earning exemption into the Melbourne Cup, Kingswood trainer Gavin Bedggood won’t be accepting the golden ticket.
Jamie Melham won the Melbourne Cup on Half Yours last year. AP
The Caulfield Cup is one of 11 golden ticket races, meaning the winner earns exemption to the race that stops the nation. Defiantly, Mr Monaco, Zakouma, and Shockletz have already accepted tickets into this year’s Melbourne Cup after winning earlier races.
“In hindsight maybe I should’ve had a nomination in (for the Melbourne Cup) but no, there’ll be no Melbourne Cup for him this year,” Bedggood told Triple M on Sunday.
“It’d been his target the whole preparation so every run in the lead-up to Saturday’s event was around having him in tip-top order for that grand final, I suppose.
“Maybe (we will aim for the Melbourne Cup) next year.”
The Geelong Cup, the Moonee Valley Gold Cup, and the Cox Plate are the remaining golden ticket races ahead of the Melbourne Cup on November 3 at Flemington.
