Racing Victoria stewards ruled Mongolian Khan a scratching from the Melbourne Cup at 11.47am, Victorian time. The development is a disaster for Baker, co-trainer Andrew Forsman and Inner Mongolian owner Lang Lin as well as rider Opie Bosson.
The scratching shortened the Cup favouritism from $4 for Japan's Fame Game to $3.60.
"At least he won the Caulfield Cup [A$3 million]," Forsman told the Herald. "This is a shame though because the Melbourne Cup is the Melbourne Cup."
"That's horses, that's the game, it can happen without warning and for no reason," Baker told the Informant.
"I don't think it's a twisted bowel, but you can't take any chances with these things. I've been through bad luck before and I'm pretty resolute.
"He's a super galloper and the main thing is to do all we can to ensure he comes through it."
The Mongolian Khan scratching will be devastating to Bosson who will be looking to take some consolation in tomorrow's A$1 million Mackinnon Stakes. He will be pulling on the famous plain blue Godolphin colours before climbing aboard the $6 favourite Magic Hurricane.
Retained Godolphin stable jockey James McDonald will ride the $8 stablemate Contributer.
The difficulty is ignoring the fact James McDonald must have had the choice of the rides on the pair and he's as good as any at judging those matters.
Trainer John O'Shea told Trackside Television yesterday he believes Contributer is still approaching his best form after three unplaced runs this preparation.
"The problem is he had so long away from racing. It's taken quite a while to get him properly fit."
This is not the strongest Mackinnon field we've seen and at his best Contributer would be very competitive.
Fawkner was 10 lengths behind Winx in last week's Cox Plate, but the run was better than it looked and he rates highly here.
Magic Hurricane was very strong at the end of his winning run in the 2400m Metropolitan in Sydney, but at 2000m this race will be run considerably sharper.
?The Gai Waterhouse-trained The Offer has not been penalised for his Bendigo Cup win. His Melbourne Cup weight remains at 54kg for Tuesday's race at Flemington.
The winner of the 2014 Sydney Cup, The Offer was the long-time favourite for last year's Melbourne Cup but did not make it to the race.
Weekend tips
Stiff last time: Endean Rose, R7 Tauranga. Caught behind a wall of horses on home turn last time and Rotorua then roared home late.
Quick improver: Victor Hugo, R5 Tauranga. Nice first-up effort and should be greatly improved.
Value: Delago's Secret, R8 Awapuni. Much better than has been racing. Classy and can surprise here.
- Additional reporting AAP
