KEY POINTS:
Mark Kavanagh was the first to admit that he'd used up plenty of luck this spring.
However the Melbourne trainer could never have imagined it would run out the way it did at Caulfield on Saturday.
"I've been kicking with the wind for a while," Kavanagh said.
"I suppose you've got to realise that the pot of luck isn't bottomless."
By the time he spun those pieces of philosophy together, Kavanagh had wiped away the blood and the tears.
The blood had run like a stream from a deep gash to the head of his Caulfield Cup favourite Maldivian after he struck his head on a piece of television equipment on top of the barrier stalls.
The tears were Kavanagh's.
"Racing's a cruel game," the trainer said.
"It's a roller coaster and only successful people know how to ride it."
For Kavanagh, the roller coaster came off the rails on Saturday.
The trainer who had won three Group One races over the past two weekends had his first Caulfield Cup runner primed and ready.
Maldivian had been backed to win a small fortune and was the A$2.40 favourite when he became agitated as he stood in the barriers and reared up and bashed his head.
According to jockey Scott Seamer who was in a nearby stall, the initial injury was a small cut.
"But as the attendants wrestled with him, it just sort of unzipped," Seamer said.
The result was a 15cm gash just behind Maldivian's right ear.
Kavanagh's spring successes had been accompanied by a growing tension as the big races approached and interest in the new bloke from Adelaide became more intense.
The tension increased in the stewards' room as Kavanagh tried to discover what had happened.
When he was told a piece of equipment connected to the television coverage of the race had been found in the barrier with blood on it, the pressure mounted considerably.
The worry for Kavanagh is the mental scars that may remain with a horse whose introduction to a racing career was delayed because of his dislike of starting gates.
A clamp used to fasten television equipment to the barrier stalls is believed to be responsible for the injury.
Chief steward Des Gleeson said he had taken possession of the clamp which had traces of blood on it and would be launching a full-scale inquiry into the incident.
Maldivian suffered a severe gash on his neck behind his right ear when he reared up in the stalls.
His antics caused second favourite Eskimo Queen to become distressed and throw herself on the ground under the stalls.
Gleeson said he had not been aware of the device that was clamped to stalls, but the starter Doug McLure had reported it had been in place since the first day of the Caulfield meeting the previous Saturday.
He said the device was positioned between stalls one and two.
The equipment was installed by the company, Sportscolour, which provides the in-house coverage of all Melbourne racing.
Racing Victoria vet Dr Paul O'Callaghan said the wound had been stitched and would not necessarily prevent Maldivian from continuing his immediate racing campaign.
But Kavanagh is a former jumps jockey, and they know more about bad luck than almost anyone in racing.
"You've just got to cop it," he said.
"At least he isn't broken down. It's a cut, he'll get over it.
"At least my mate [Danny O'Brien] won it," he said.
"That makes it a bit easier."
But when you have the shortest-priced Caulfield Cup favourite in 40 years in peak condition and he's in the starting gates ready to leap towards a A$1.5 million cheque and he comes out backwards, it hurts more than the Flemington horseman was letting on.
AAP
