|
Stradbroke Handicap winner La Montagna is out of the Melbourne spring carnival after being badly injured in a sand roll accident at Flemington.
Trainer Barry Baldwin said La Montagna panicked and tried to jump a gate near the Flemington sand roll on Saturday afternoon.
"It's unbelievable bad luck," Baldwin said.
"She was only just getting used to racing the Melbourne direction and was really starting to fire down there.
"Craig Newitt rode her in work in the morning and he was rapt with how she had improved."
Newitt rode La Montagna when she won the Group One Stradbroke Hcp (1400m) at Eagle Farm in June and was aboard when she struggled around Caulfield finishing ninth to Queen Of The Hill in the Group Three How Now Stakes (1200m) on September 23.
La Montagna was to run in the Group Two Jayco Stakes (1400m) at Flemington on Saturday with Danny Nikolic replacing the suspended Newitt.
"It's a tragedy but hopefully we can still get an autumn carnival out of her next year," Baldwin said.
"When she tried to jump the gate she wrapped her leg around it and the fell over on the bitumen.
"She's got one very deep cut on the pastern area which is deep to the bone and numerous other cuts and abrasions.
"She'll be out for months but it would have been worse had she not worn protective boots."
Baldwin's bad luck with La Montagna was tempered when Unique Around ($4.20) won the Lyndhurst Stud Hcp (1300m) at Eagle Farm on Monday.
Unique Around gave Melbourne Cup winning jockey Larry Olsen his first metropolitan winner as an owner-breeder.
Olsen bred Unique Around from Unique Pack, a mare he once prepared during a brief a four-year training stint.
"She (Unique Pack) had two starts and never won but she was quite useful," Olsen said.
© 2010 Published 02/10/06
|
