Home side suffer as Efficient ruled out of Melbourne Cup

13 April 2012

European chances of success in the Emirates Melbourne Cup on Tuesday increased today with the news that Australia's premier hope and last year's winner Efficient is to miss the race due to injury.

Efficient beat the Luca Cumani-trained Purple Moon by half a length in "the race that stops a nation" 12 months ago but the grey has suffered a fetlock injury which, ironically, guarantees Cumani's second-string Bauer a run.

Owner Lloyd Williams, who will still have two runners in the Cup, said: "He has strained the fetlock joint but we are not sure how it happened. He was super yesterday. But what can you do? That is racing."

Efficient was Williams's third Melbourne Cup winner but he will now rely on Saturday's Cox Plate runner-up Zipping and sixth-placed horse C'est La Guerre against an increasingly strong European challenge.

Market leaders Septimus and Mad Rush, trained by Aidan O'Brien and Cumani respectively, are sure to shorten in the betting for the two-mile Group 1 and, with Godolphin's All The Good, Bauer and Dermot Weld's Profound Beauty also well fancied, the Europeans are sitting pretty in their latest attempt at Cup success.

All The Good started the ball rolling by taking the Caulfield Cup 11 days ago before Bauer landed the Geelong Cup last week. The weekend then saw five European winners over at Santa Anita in the Breeders' Cup.

It is the second time that Efficient, who was as short as 5-1 with Betfred, has been a late withdrawal from the Melbourne Cup. The five-year-old was scratched on the morning of the race in 2006 just days after running out an impressive winner of the Victoria Derby.

Williams added: "We got him out of his box this morning and there was heat in the joint. We'll know more when the vets go right over it, but at this stage he'll need three months of doing nothing. That means it will be 12 months before he can race again.

"I've spent 40-something years in this game and to some extent you get to grin and bear it, but I am feeling very sorry for myself right now."

Cumani's Bauer, who had been No25 on the elimination list with a maximum of 24 due to face the starter, is now guaranteed a Cup place while there was also good news about Jane Chapple-Hyam's Yellowstone who was cast in his box yesterday.

Jockey John Egan walked the four-year-old twice round the track at Sandown before trotting for one lap with all reports suggesting the horse pulled up sound.

Home side suffer as Efficient ruled out of Melbourne Cup

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