![\"Sir](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-2239108600-1024x765.jpg\")
One-time Melbourne Cup favourite Sir Delius is being set for a spell. (Photo by Vince Caligiuri\/Getty Images)<\/p>\nOne-time Melbourne Cup favourite Sir Delius is being set for a spell. (Photo by Vince Caligiuri\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The trainers of top-class middle distance horse Sir Delius will abide by expert veterinary opinion and a stewards\u2019 ruling, which put an end to his chances in two of Australia\u2019s premier races, the Cox Plate and the Melbourne Cup.<\/p>\n
It is believed the connections of Sir Delius had considered legal action in an attempt to overturn the veterinary findings which saw Racing Victoria stewards order his withdrawal from Saturday\u2019s Cox Plate at Moonee Valley and the Cup 10 days\u2019 later.<\/p>\n
After the veterinary findings were revealed last Friday, Sir Delius was floated from Flemington to Waterhouse and Bott\u2019s Sydney stable and nominated for Saturday\u2019s $750,000 Craven Plate at Randwick.<\/p>\n
But trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott did not accept with Sir Delius for the 2000m race on Wednesday, instead sending the son of Frankel to the paddock with plans already being made for a Sydney autumn campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter discussing Sir Delius with the ownership group, Adrian and I have made the decision to spell him and set our sights on the autumn carnival,\u201d Waterhouse wrote on social media.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s an extremely valuable horse and one we firmly believe will continue to prove he\u2019s the best weight for age performer in Australia. Bring on the $5m Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The approach is a mirror of what happened with subsequent Melbourne Cup winner Gold Trip in 2022. He was ruled out of the Cox Plate that year, then sent to Sydney to continue his campaign, only for that plan to be abandoned.<\/p>\n
He was cleared to run in the Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup, which he won, the following year.<\/p>\n
Sir Delius had been the pre-post favourite for the Melbourne Cup, having won the Chairman\u2019s Handicap in Brisbane over 2000m on his Australian debut last May before winning the Group 1 Underwood Stakes second-up this campaign.<\/p>\n
He defeated leading Cox Plate fancies Antino and Via Sistina by 1.75 lengths in the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes at Flemington at his most recent start on October 4.<\/p>\n
Under the entry conditions of the Melbourne Cup, Sir Delius was presented to the University of Melbourne Equine Centre in Werribee last week for a compulsory computed tomography (CT) scan.<\/p>\n
The scans are reviewed by three independent panel members who are diagnostic imaging specialists from Australia, the UK and the United States.<\/p>\n
They found Sir Delius presented with \u201ca heightened risk of injury\u201d should he be allowed to race in the $6 million Cox Plate.<\/p>\n
The entire also underwent a positron emission tomography (PET) scan, which can help determine the status of a concern area.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving reviewed the PET scan results alongside the CT scan results, the panel members have advised RV Veterinary Services that they remain of the view that Sir Delius is currently at heightened risk of injury,\u201d a Racing Victoria statement released last Friday read.<\/p>\n
\u201cFollowing advice from RV Veterinary Services in relation to the specialist opinions from the imaging panel, RV stewards have stood down Sir Delius from competing in the remainder of the 2025 spring racing carnival.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sir Delius, who ran eighth in last year\u2019s Arc De Triomphe, is raced by a syndicate headed by Sir Owen Glenn\u2019s Go Bloodstock after the group paid 1.3 million guineas (A$2.55 million) for him at last year\u2019s Tattersalls Horses In Training Sale.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Waterhouse and Bott and agents Hubie De Burgh and Johnny McKeever also signed the docket at the Newmarket sale 12 months ago.<\/p>\n
He has won more than $1.2 million in prize money in his four starts in Australia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One-time Melbourne Cup favourite Sir Delius is being set for a spell. (Photo by Vince Caligiuri\/Getty Images) The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-216683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}