Withhold Ruled Out Of Melbourne Cup After Geelong Disappointment

The English raider that was one of the main overseas hopefuls for us in this years Melbourne Cup will now not being running at Flemington on November 6th, due to an incident that happened in the early hours of this morning in Australia.

Withhold was entered into the Group 3 Geelong Cup today to try and win his way into getting a spot in the Lexus Melbourne Cup. However, the opposite happened and instead of giving one of the most important runs of his career, he instead left his connections heartbroken as he bled from both nostrils in running and picked up a three month ban from racing which rules him out of the Melbourne Cup.

There was positivity in the Charlton camp ahead of Withhold's Australian endeavour and after he won the Northumberland Plate at Newcastle emphatically the plan was always to go to Australia but since getting there, nothing has gone to plan.

The plan was to win the Geelong Cup and pick up at least a kilogram penalty to then move up the order of entry into the race and this plan would have more or less secured him a spot in the race at Flemington. But it wasn't to be, going off as 11/5 favourite and picking up a freak injury that impacted how he ran.

Connections of the Roger Charlton trained horse have payed nearly £75,000 to travel their horse down under for the Melbourne Cup and with no clear entry into the race. This has now obviously backfired and just shows the risk owners in horse racing have to take sometimes and this is just one of the occasions it doesn't pay off.

(Credit Racing.com)

In the Geelong Cup Withhold managed to finish eighth out of 15 runners with his injury with 15/1 winner runaway, coming home the strongest to take the Group 3 contest.

All of the other jockeys and horses returned well but Withhold obviously did not and his jockey Kerrin McEvoy had dismounted from his ride and walked him back to the paddock. Charlton's white shirt was stained red from the blood coming from Withhold's nostrils.

(Credit Racing Post) Jockey Kerrin McEvoy said: "Unfortunately the horse has bled from both nostrils,

“It's unfortunate for the horse and connections that he wasn't able to show his true form today. I travelled nicely to the top of the hill but I must admit I was surprised when I came off the bridle as early as I did.

“I wasn't aware [that he'd bled] until I pulled up; initially I thought it might have been the firm ground. It's a shame because he's a nice horse and obviously would have shown more.”