Gilded Water, owned by King Charles, is still set for the Geelong Cup, despite wild weather forcing the postponement of the race
It is the first time the Geelong Cup has not been held since 1953 when persistent rain the night before the race caused the meeting to be cancelled.
Racing Victoria’s race chairman Paul Bloodworth said the remaining six races would be run on Thursday, with the first race starting at 2.25pm and running in the same race order.
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Entry to the races will also be free, but with Wednesday being a public holiday in Geelong, crowds will be thinner. Three races were considered to be moved to Ballarat on Friday, but Geelong Racing Club wanted to finish the meeting with sponsorship deals on Thursday.
“The race club were keen to run the remaining races here. It’s a Ladbrokes track. Ballarat is a Sportsbet track so they were keen to give their sponsors an opportunity to get something tomorrow,” Bloodworth said.
As well as the Geelong Cup, which is proving to be a strong lead race to the Melbourne Cup, the Geelong Classic, the Victoria Derby lead race, will also be run on Thursday.
With a separate meeting to be held at Mornington, a number of jockey changes will need to be made as some jockeys are booked to ride at the Mornington meeting.
Torranzino coach Paul Preusker is relieved as he awaits a decision on when the Geelong Cup will be rescheduled. “We just have to deal with it. Everybody has to do the same thing,” Preusker said.
Meanwhile, the Gai Waterhouse-Adrian Bott-trained Sir Delius was charmed after vets dropped him from the Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup, where he was favourite, and scans showed he was at “high risk of injury” if he ran in those races.
Craig Williams rode Sir Delius to a Turnbull Stakes win at Flemington earlier this month.Credit: Getty Images
Melbourne Cup runners are required to undergo mandatory Computed Tomography (CT) scans of distal limbs as part of protocols introduced to reduce the risk of injury following the deaths of six horses in the Melbourne Cup between 2013 and 2020.
Waterhouse Racing said on social media they would now set their sights on the autumn carnival with the five-year-old winning Group 1.
“He is an extremely valuable horse and we firmly believe he will continue to prove himself as the top weight-for-age performer in Australia,” they said in a statement.
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