Outstanding New Zealand galloper Cent Home has broken down and is returning home from Sydney.
Trainer Jim Wallace said Cent Home had strained a suspensory ligament after galloping last Thursday.
It is a recurrence of a problem the horse had suffered previously and Wallace said it would mean Cent Home would be off the scene for 12 months.
"The veterinary opinion is that it is not a major problem, but significant. We'll just have to keep our fingers crossed that we can get him back," Wallace said.
"He's always been a dicey proposition and we are probably lucky to get as far as we have."
Cent Home was scheduled to race in Sydney on Saturday and had been selected to contest the $S3 million ($NZ4.18 million) Singapore International Cup on May 12.
The Lord Ballina gelding showed he was up to the best Australian gallopers when winning the $A200,000 St George Stakes (1800m) at Caulfield on February 24, but had little luck in his two subsequent starts - finishing sixth in the $A1.25 million Australian Cup (2000m) at Flemington on March 12 and ninth in the $A350,000 George Ryder Stakes (1500m) at Rosehill in Sydney on March 31.
On Tuesday night at the Sydney yearling sales Wallace sold for $A230,000 a brother to Cent Home. The colt, by Lord Ballina from the Centaine mare Centuria, was bought by top Sydney trainer John Hawkes.
Wallace also sold an Entrepreneur filly from the Centaine mare Centrepiece for $A55,000. The filly is a half-sister to the smart galloper Vitrinite.
- NZPA
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