There will be no New Zealand-trained horses at the Hong Kong international meeting after Sculptor was ruled out with injury.
A scan yesterday confirmed Sculptor had suffered mild damage to a suspensory ligament, Levin trainer Peter McKenzie told NZPA from Melbourne yesterday.
"It's not a major but it's
enough to stop him from racing for the time being," he said.
Sculptor had been in quarantine at Sandown racecourse in Melbourne and McKenzie said the injury showed up after training on Thursday.
"We don't know whether he knocked his leg or what," he said.
Sculptor was due to be flown to Hong Kong today and was to have contested the HK$14 million ($2.4 million) Hong Kong Vase (2400m) on December 9.
He was the only New Zealand-trained horse selected to contest one of the four international races.
Sculptor was ninth in the Melbourne Cup at Flemington on November 6 at his last start. Three days earlier at the same venue he had won the Saab Quality Handicap.
The horse is unable to return to New Zealand because of the equine influenza crisis that hit racing in the Sydney and Brisbane regions.
McKenzie said the 5-year-old entire would remain in the care of the Victorian-based former New Zealand jockey Gary Stewart who was to have travelled with the horse to Hong Kong.
* Meanwhile, further west, El Presidente confirmed his status as the latest superstar of Western Australian racing when he produced his trademark finishing burst to score an impressive win in the A$1 million Railway Stakes at Ascot on Satur-day.
Ridden by Troy Turner and sent out favourite at $2.80, El Presidente came from 10th of the 16 runners at the halfway mark of the 1600m feature to beat $61 outsider Hartleys Dream by a length with Damien Oliver's mount Mansion House, who was backed from $8 to $5.50, a long neck away third.
El Presidente, a 4-year-old gelding by Dante's Fury, took his record to nine wins and two placings from 11 starts for A$900,000.
- NZPA
