KEY POINTS:
SYDNEY - Former New Zealand stayer Sphenophyta could be headed for retirement.
Michael Freedman, brother of trainer Lee, said yesterday the stable doesn't hold much hope for Sphenophyta's racing future.
Last year's Caulfield Cup favourite will now face veterinary tests tomorrow.
His former Waikato trainer, Richard Otto, and Levin breeder Mark Goodwin retained 40 per cent of the ownership in the tough 7-year-old.
Last Saturday at Caulfield he finished a distant last in the Liston Stakes (1400m).
Sphenophyta, currently a $26 chance for the group-one Kelt Capital Stakes at Hastings in October, was found to have an irregular heartbeat after the race.
Michael Freedman said the Groom Dancer gelding would undergo "significant stress tests" at Werribee, near Melbourne.
"We're not really expecting too many surprises," he told Sydney radio station 2KY.
"We've been around the game long enough to see when horses start putting in runs like that, it's obviously something pretty serious.
"For the benefit of all the owners we wanted to at least get to the bottom of what was causing the problem.
"But we're not holding out great hope of racing on much further."
The gelding has had only 16 career starts for five wins, and stake earnings of A$697,260 ($813,415).
His biggest win was the group-one Turnbull Stakes (2000m) at Flemington in Melbourne last October, which secured favouritism for the Caulfield Cup in which finished a close fifth to Tawqeet.
But in three runs since then, Sphenophyta faded badly.
Freedman last year paid a reported A$600,000 for a 60 per cent share in the horse on behalf of a Melbourne syndicate.
- NZPA
