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There is a scramble to fill the final spots in the field for Saturday's Golden Slipper Stakes after the connections of Queensland youngster Whiskey Allround decided not to pay the $150,000 late entry fee by today's 11am deadline.
Photo by Racing and Sports
Star Kiwi filly Ruud Awakening and the Peter Moody-trained Il Cavallo were paid up as late entries for the Golden Slipper.
Whiskey Allround was ruled out after he was found to be suffering from soreness in his hindquarters after he galloped this morning while the connections of Magic Night Stakes winner Scandiva preferred not to pay the late entry fee for their filly, helping to promote some fringe candidates into the final field.
The prizemoney cut off is going to be one of the lowest in recent years with horses who have earned less than $30,000 prizemoney a chance to gain a start.
Moody has gambled on the impressive Il Cavallo, a big midweek winner of his only start in Melbourne, making the field due to the high attrition rate in the last 24 hours. He is outside the top 32 qualifiers on prizemoney but at least 14 horses above him have been ruled out.
If he fails to make the final field his connections get a refund of the $150,000 late entry fee.
Pago Pago Stakes winner Sidestep is likely to be included in the final 16 plus emergencies when the field is declared on Tuesday, joining his stablemates Kuroshio and Guelph.
The Jason Coyle-trained Va Pensiero has secured a start with Hong Kong based jockey Tim Clark set to fly back to Sydney for the ride.
Gerald Ryan has also finalised his riders with Glyn Schofield on Charlie Boy and Corey Brown to ride Dothraki.
Magic Night Stake second Shahad will also gain a berth if Gai Waterhouse decides to add that filly to her three definite runners Overreach, Whittington and Sweet Idea.
Paul Messara has ruled Vocalise out due to treatment for a temperature but stablemate Havana, third in the Todman Stakes, is now well placed to sneak into the field.
New Zealand-trained multiple G1 winner Sangster was the only late entry for Saturday's $2.5 million BMW over 2400m at today's deadline.
