By Matt Markham
Most knew it was coming, but the news Christen Me was out of this year’s New Zealand Trotting Cup yesterday was enough to send a gasp of shock horror around the South Bay Racecourse in Kaikoura.
To be fair the writing had been on the wall for a few weeks. His omission from last week’s Ashburton Flying Stakes told a pretty damning story of the battle his trainer Cran Dalgety was facing. But the announcement which gave all the speculation some validity still had a massive impact.
And while understandably gutted to lose what appeared three months ago to be his best chance thus far of winning our greatest race – Dalgety was as philosophical as ever last night.
“It could be worse, we could have lost the horse,’’ he said.
“But we haven’t, he’s still here and he’s still kicking – just not quite as powerfully as we would like him to be.
“I gave myself until today (Monday) to get things sorted and we were unfortunately unable to get all our ducks in a row.
“So the dream is over but we will live to fight another day.’’
Dalgety is battling pin-pointing exactly what the issue is with Christen Me but was quick to say it wasn’t an isolated problem. He hasn’t been able to get last season’s Auckland Cup winner to lose his winter coat probably and it appears he is fighting some form of virus which hasn’t helped with preparations for a major two mile event.
“It’s been a culmination of a whole heap of different things. Not much has gone right to be honest.
“I feel for his owners, it’s not a nice situation to be in.’’
With the Cup out of the equation Dalgety could be excused for backing right off and letting his star pacer find his own way back and, in some sense, he will do just that but at this stage he will remain in work.
“We will keep him ticking over while we try and sort everything out.
“I don’t want to put a return date or anything like that out there but I guess you could say that we will be looking toward the Auckland Cup carnival and hoping for the best.
“But his health and wellbeing is the main priority right now.’’
In a double blow for Dalgety he also withdrew Bit Of A Legend from the Cup as he continues to battle with the standing start.
“If the Cup was a mobile we would be there without doubt, but it’s not and he’s just not stepping away at all.
“So I think we are better off tackling the mobile racing and seeing where we are at from there.
“Even though he has been galloping he has still gone some great races so I would expect him to be competitive.’’
There was some good news yesterday for the West Melton trainer though.
Mighty Flying Mac continued his march toward the Cup with a strong third in behind Arden Rooney and Messini in the Kaikoura Cup. Confirming his place as one of the dark horses of the Cup should the right luck fall in his favour.
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