Emerging staying star Signoff is injured and will not be taking his place in Sunday’s $100,000 Pakenham Cup (2000m) at Racing.com Park, reports racing.com.
Trainer Darren Weir on Tuesday afternoon had the five-year-old inspected by vets after heat was detected in one of the gelding’s legs.
“Unfortunately he just had a bit of heat behind the back of the knee and we’re just taking the safety precautions with him,” Weir said.
“We’re definitely not going to run him at Pakenham.
“I don’t think it’s very serious, but we’re taking all the right precautions and it would probably end his preparation I would have thought.”
The Pakenham Cup was to be Signoff’s second and final start of an autumn campaign that started with an eighth placing over 1600m at Flemington on 11 April.
The son of Authorized is considered one of the leading local contenders for this year’s Emirates Melbourne Cup - in which he finished fourth last year - and while Weir is anxiously awaiting the results of the scans, he is optimistic it won’t impact his 2015 Spring campaign.
“I don’t think it’s serious enough to put Spring in doubt but sometimes you don’t know until you scan the legs and X-ray them,” he said.
“He’s not sore or anything like that, it was just a bit of heat behind the knee, so we just want to get it checked out. Hopefully everything’s all right and just a little break will fix it.”