Racing: Owner - Reinstate Marmelo in Cup

Marmelo (right) runs second to Cross Counter (centre) in last year's Melbourne Cup. Photo / Getty Images

One of Marmelo's owners has indicated legal action is a possibility if Marmelo is not reinstated in the Melbourne Cup field before it is finalised tomorrow night.

John O'Neill suggested the team associated with the Hughie Morrison-trained entire would explore all avenues in an attempt to get him cleared to take part in the race for the third year in a row.

"Absolutely," John O'Neill said on RSN927's Racing Pulse when asked if legal action was a possibility.

Marmelo was on Wednesday night ruled out of taking his place in Tuesday's race after a CT scan indicated an ''incomplete fracture in the horse's near fore cannon bone and an incomplete fracture in its off hind cannon bone''.

O'Neill said the results were at odds with testing carried out on Marmelo prior to leaving the UK and his attitude at the Werribee Quarantine Centre and called on Racing Victoria to meet with members of the team and experts who assessed the horse prior to coming to Australia before the weekend.

"If they're brave enough and actually want to give Hughie (Morrison) a hearing and get Ian (Wright), the international expert in CT scans on the phone and the other two vets that have worked with the horse and Hugh Bowman, who rides the horse, in a room to discuss the processes and then make a decision, that's fine," O'Neill said.

"That's the only option there is. They need to be game enough to reinstate the horse and come down to a time when they're happy — Friday afternoon, whatever — but they need to get all the experts involved to have a clear understanding of the situation.

"We don't want to be in a position where we cause any danger for the horse, but at the end of the day they need to be reading and understanding the information correctly and I don't believe they are."

O'Neill questioned RV's process regarding the vetting of international horses, suggesting the vet who makes the call in Australia should be involved in the initial process overseas.

"What happens in September, for people that don't know, is horses that are travelling over internationally get vetted (in their home country)," O'Neill said.

"We (Racing Victoria) don't even send Grace (Forbes, RV's head vet) over to vet the horses. So, they're vetted internationally, and videos are sent back here and then if Grace and her panel or the vets or the people that are working, approve the process, then they're able to come."

O'Neill also wanted to correct information surrounding why Marmelo underwent a CT scan.

"The information that's gone out in relation to this horse being sore is incorrect. It's factually incorrect," he said. "This horse has never missed a gallop, he's never missed a beat, he's never been scratched from a race from being sore. The horse is bounding out of his skin and he's ready to go. The horse is a 7-year-old stallion. He can't trot. He didn't trot last year, he didn't trot the year before.

"So, the reason the CT scan was called, I believe, is because the horse didn't trot, not because he was sore. That is factually incorrect and I want to put that on the record."

Marmelo was not the only international raider ruled out of next Tuesday's race, with the Charlie Appleby-trained Ispolini also withdrawn due to a scan that indicated ''pre-fracture pathology within the horse's right front cannon bone''.