A Melbourne Cup hopeful suffered a worrying moment on the eve of Tuesday’s big race after the horse appeared to stumble during training.
The worrying moment came after the Onesmooth operator failed a vet test on Friday, but subsequent tests over the weekend showed the seven-year-old had re-shod.
The Geelong Cup winner was one of the favorites to win the race but has had Buckaroo and the Willie Mullins-trained Vauban’s prices cut to around $9 due to a heel injury.
The horse had suffered a cut to the right hind heel, with Racing Victoria Stewards noting that there had been a ‘change in the horse’s gait’.
But things almost took a turn for the worse on Monday after the horse completed a workout on the beach.
In images captured by Nine newsThe horse, which will be ridden by 2019 Melbourne Cup winner Craig Williams, appears to lose his balance as he wades his way through the sea.
The slippery operator appeared to fall forward on his left front leg but quickly regained his composure as he walked around in the water before returning to his trainers, who were watching him at the edge of the surf.
“I thought at the time he was going,” his horse Trackworth said, according to Channel Nine.
A Melbourne Cup hopeful had a worrying moment on the eve of Tuesday’s big race
A slippery operator appeared to slip while completing a training session in the sea
But the horse appeared to quickly regain his composure and was seen walking back to his trainers on the beach unharmed.
‘Have you seen it? He tripped!’
Some in the racing industry say that riding in the sea helps the animal relax.
That’s what racehorse trainer Gai Waterhouse said CNN: ‘Playing in the sea and the sand relaxes the horses. It gives them something to do other than running laps.
She adds: ‘It is also particularly good for horses that may have been injured.’
Onesmoothoperator, trained by Brian Ellison and owned by Patrick Boyle, recently arrived in Australia ahead of this week’s festival in Flemington.
Following victory in Geelong in October, Onesmoothoperator can join an exclusive horse club that includes Media Puzzle, Americain and Dunaden as the only runners to complete the Geelong-Melbourne Cup double.
Twenty-three horses will take part in Tuesday’s race after Athabascan was excluded from the Flemington festival due to a heart problem.