Eremein out of Australian Cup
Tuesday, 19 February 2008:  | | Eremein - talented but injury prone - missing from the Australian Cup |
Eremein's bid for next month's Australian Cup is over but the race got a boost when trainer David Hayes paid up for another five-time Group One winner, Miss Finland, as a first acceptor and dropped her out of the Newmarket Handicap on the same day. Eskander's Betstar slashed Miss Finland's price from $21 to $13 for the $1 million Cup on March 8 while Maldivian firmed from $2.80 to $2.50 with the absence of the Allan Denham-trained Eremein, the winner of more than $4.2 million in stakes. Speculation that Eremein would miss the Australian Cup heightened on Monday when the six-year-old was missing from Saturday's entries for the Expressway Stakes (1200m) at Canterbury and the St George Stakes (1800m) at Caulfield. Owner Geoff White said Eremein, who has a history of back-related injuries, had suffered from what he believed were hock problems since his outstanding comeback win in the Festival Stakes (1500m) at Rosehill on January 19. "He has been training well but is a bit sore after training," White said. "We had the vets to him a few times and he has missed too much work probably to do a Melbourne campaign." White said the focus was now on getting Eremein ready for the Group One BMW (2400m) at Rosehill on April 19. He won the race two years ago sandwiched between victories in the Group One Ranvet Stakes and the Group One Queen Elizabeth Stakes. White said he was hopeful the Ranvet would again be among Eremein's lead-up races to The BMW. "We have never had him (Eremein) to Melbourne but it is a pretty good autumn carnival up here," White said. Hayes had targeted the Newmarket for Miss Finland as part of an autumn sprint campaign after she was unplaced in both the Cox Plate (2040m) and the Mackinnon Stakes (2000m) last spring, but has changed direction with her again. She finished fifth to Apache Cat when resuming in the Group One Lightning Stakes (1000m) and was second last to the baldy-faced chestnut in last Saturday's Group One Australia Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley. Miss Finland will get a chance to redeem herself in the Group One Futurity Stakes (1600m) at Caulfield on March 1 but Hayes has warned another failure would spell the end of her racing career. The unexpected presence of Sniper's Bullet among the first acceptances for the Newmarket led to Betstar chopping his price from $17 to $9. "If he comes down he will be very hard to beat," Betstar's Michael Horne said. After Tuesday's first acceptances for the Group One features at Flemington on March 8 there are 32 horses remaining in the Australian Guineas (1600m), 30 horses in the Newmarket and only 20 horses in the Australian Cup. "It is quite a surprise to see the field down from about 60 to 20 horses when we're still three weeks away," Horne said. "Obviously it is going to be small, select field and everything is leaning towards Maldivian at the moment. "The money has pretty much been one-way and he is far and away our worst result, with us standing to lose well over $250,000 already. "If it continues I think he will be very short by race day." Maldivian will run in Saturday's St George Stakes.
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