The shock scratching of Sir Delius from the Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup is about protecting the horse – and racing’s image – according to Racing Victoria CEO Aaron Morrison.
He told Betsy that the world’s best technology had been used to identify the star was at risk of injury and that it was in racing’s interest the 5-year-old gelding didn’t run in the Cox Plate. The stable elected to have Sir Delius’ Melbourne Cup scans done before the Cox Plate.
“It was an incredibly hard decision,” Morrison said.
“You wouldn’t take a decision like that lightly. Any horse ruled out of any race, you wouldn’t take lightly, but especially the favourite for the Cox Plate and in the top chances in the Melbourne Cup. It was a massive, massive decision.”
An independent panel of vets made the call to remove Sir Delius after two different scans were done. It was a decision trainer Gai Waterhouse discussed with Morrison at Caulfield on Saturday.
“She was disappointed, but she was still pleasant and sort of looking forwards. She doesn’t agree with the framework and we’ll talk more about it in good time, but she was obviously there for Vauban yesterday and focusing on that,” he said.
Morrison said that Waterhouse believes there was nothing to indicate the horse was not sound, but said that same rationale had led to catastrophic injuries in the Melbourne Cup.
“She was as reasonable as she could be in the circumstances to someone who was obviously very disappointed with the shock news,” he said.
“And she would say there’s nothing that they would have seen to have given any indication of what the scans showed.”
“But that was the same for [the Aidan O’Brien trained horse] Anthony Van Dyke as well.”
“I’ve heard a lot of people saying, well, how can it be that the horse [Sir Delius] is going so well, dominating, winning a couple of Group 1s, and then all of a sudden it’s suddenly deemed unfit to run?”
“Well, you sort of go back to Anthony Van Dyke, and that was unfortunately the bad poster child for where we are today.”
The death of Anthony Van Dyke in 2020 very nearly saw racing in Victoria have its support from the state government reviewed – some at RV believed at the time it could have been withdrawn.
Betsy understands RV executives were asked to present a case as to why the Melbourne Cup should not have some kind of government intervention.
RV then developed stricter vetting protocols for all runners and there has not been a single fatality since.
“We’re adamant that they’re necessary and they are doing their job, which is to protect the horse, to protect racing, to protect the Melbourne Cup,” Morrison said.
“This is about long-term protection of the Melbourne Cup, which is Australia’s biggest race, Australia’s most visible race.”
Trainer Adrian Bott told Channel Seven on Saturday that they will consider running Sir Delius in Sydney in the coming weeks after they consult their own vets.
The horse, however, will now have an embargo placed on his ability to race in Victoria until vets deem him fit. It will be up to individual states as to whether they enforce it in their jurisdiction, however it is deemed likely they will.
RV will also meet with the Waterhouse and Bott stable in coming days to work through a management plan for Sir Delius’ next steps.
Morrison said that he believes RV had done “a much better job” selling the benefits of the protocols to the participants, but concedes when asked whether more could be done to sell it publicly.
“I think, by and large, we’ve done a much better job, particularly managing the international trainers, and I think the relationship has improved significantly this year compared to previous,” he said.
“We’ve really focused on transparency, communication. So I think your point before about can we do more to explain it to the general public, maybe we could.”
“But certainly have done a much better job, I reckon, in communicating with the participants involved.”
Morrison still believes the Melbourne Cup is unlike anything else in the racing world, but admits it’s a nervous period too.
“While you’re trying to enjoy what is an amazing spectacle, and how exciting it is, there is a lot of nervousness as the horses are going around, because we are on the world stage, unlike any other race, even the Everest,” he said.
“It’s just different gravy, the Melbourne Cup.”
