By Mike Dillon
Champagne will definitely not be retired to stud despite being pulled out of contention for the world's richest race, the $US5 million Dubai World Cup on March 28.
The outstanding mare will not be seen again until the spring after trainer Laurie Laxon and owner Bob Emery decided to completely abandon autumn racing following a sub-standard weekend workout.
"Her work simply wasn't good enough to line her up in the $100,000 Waikato Draught Sprint this Saturday and everything hinged on that," said Laxon yesterday.
"For her to run in the Australian Cup and/or the Dubai Cup it was crucial she started at Te Rapa on Saturday."
Laxon said there were signs Champagne may not have fully recovered from the tough efforts required to establish her outstanding form in Melbourne in the spring.
Champagne was knocked out of Caulfield Cup contention by winner Taufan's Melody then won the group one Mackinnon Stakes and finished a close second to Jezabeel in the Melbourne Cup.
"She may just need a bit more time," said Laxon, who added there were a couple of signs the mare was short of her brilliant best.
"I've been galloping her with Desert Rain, who is a smart horse despite the fact he hasn't raced for 14 months. The other day he was waiting for her at the end of the gallop. That has happened before and it's simply not her.
"And she didn't recover from her work as well as I'd like."
Emery and Laxon are understandably bitterly disappointed about Dubai, particularly when it looked close to certain the mare would be the first New Zealander to receive one of the greatly sought-after invitations, expected in the next few days.
"But that's horse racing," said Emery with the same sportsmanship that characterised his Melbourne Cup defeat.
Champagne will spend two weeks being eased out of training at Laxon's then spelled on a Cambridge farm.
"Just about every race she had in the spring was a group race and those Australian carnival group one races are tough affairs," said Laxon.
"She should come back as good as gold."
Horse Racing: Stud ruled out for champion
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