David Hayes was upset by the forced scratching of Cup hope Changingoftheguard on raceday morning. Three Racing Victoria vets decided the import was lame. Hayes's vet disagreed and so did the trainer. 'They see lameness that is not there,' Hayes fumed. 'The horse is not lame.''Guard's' scratching adds to the farce that surrounds the Melbourne Cup this year with the highly-regarded Vigor not taking his place in the field, even though VRC committee members had a chance to toss out a scrubber and pu
David Hayes was upset by the forced scratching of Cup hope Changingoftheguard on raceday morning. Three Racing Victoria vets decided the import was lame. Hayes's vet disagreed and so did the trainer. 'They see lameness that is not there,' Hayes fumed. 'The horse is not lame.'
'Guard's' scratching adds to the farce that surrounds the Melbourne Cup this year with the highly-regarded Vigor not taking his place in the field, even though VRC committee members had a chance to toss out a scrubber and put him in. Now, the Guard incident happens. It isn't the first time David Hayes has argued with vets about the lameness or otherwise of one of his Cup runners. With computers now capable of just about anything, racing officialdom and the TABs still cannot come up with a formula to allow more than 24 runners to be listed for a race. The UK racing setup does it very easily. In 2009, we still cannot manage to do it...or just don't want to be bothered.