Military Attack's chances of capturing a second straight Group One Citibank Hong Kong Gold Cup next month were dealt a major blow after his scratching from today's lead-up race at Sha Tin.
Champion trainer Caspar Fownes was forced to scratch the former horse of the year from the Group Three Centenary Vase because he was not satisfied with the seven-year-old's recovery from weight loss owing to a lack of appetite during the week.
Military Attack will now have to head into the 2,000m Group One on March 1 having not run for 10 weeks.
Hear what Fownes had to say about the trial here.
"He is too good a horse to risk, and you want them going forward into a big race and not backwards," he said, adding that even though blood test results had shown no abnormalities he could not justify pushing on.
"I trust my eyes, as I've always been taught, and he was just too light - I trust what the scales tell me as well," he said.
The horse that narrowly defeated Military Attack last start in the Hong Kong Cup and in last season's Audemars Piguet QE II Cup, former stablemate and reigning Horse of the Year Designs On Rome, will be left to carry top weight of 131 pounds in today's handicap.
Fownes remained positive about getting Military Attack ready for a rematch with Designs On Rome in three weeks and will tinker with his horse's feed and training patterns in an effort to help him regain his appetite.
"We will now hopefully get him back on track for next month's big race, maybe change up his diet a little," Fownes said. "It's not the end of the world and I'm sure we can turn it around."
Fownes welcomed his star sprinter Lucky Nine back to the trials yesterday morning in a crucial hit-out ahead of the eight-year-old's tilt at a third straight Group One Chairman's Sprint Prize win on February 15.
"It was a nice trial," Fownes said. "He jumped clean with the blinkers on and didn't fidget around in the gates."
The trainer was offering no excuses for the normally wholehearted performer's disappointing unplaced finish last start in the Hong Kong Sprint.
"He was flying going into that race, but we will forgive him one bad run, given his record."
Meanwhile, stewards yesterday fined trainer Danny Shum Chap-shing HK$20,000 for the inadvertent administration of phenylbutazone to his Class Four galloper Southern Springs, which forced his withdrawal from a Happy Valley race last month.
It was found that the stable's head lad gave the anti-inflammatory to Southern Springs when it was actually intended for the horse in an adjoining box.
