Winx sent for spell, back in autumn

Champion mare Winx will not run again this spring with the dual Cox Plate winner to be sent to the spelling paddock.

Trainer Chris Waller said it was in the mare’s best interests to have a break now with a view to her autumn campaign which is likely to include the $4 million Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick.

He said Winx had a minor abrasion to a hind leg which he decided to treat with antibiotics and she would not run in the Emirates Mackinnon on Saturday week at Flemington.

Meanwhile champion jockey Damien Oliver has lost a bid to downgrade his reckless riding charge with a judge describing his attitude as cavalier.

Oliver still hopes to be allowed to ride at Saturday’s Victoria Derby meeting despite the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal finding him guilty of reckless riding.

VCAT vice president Judge Pamela Jenkins heard submissions on the penalty on Monday with Oliver hoping to have his 20-meeting suspension reduced.

Oliver was outed over his ride on eventual winner Flying Artie in the Blue Sapphire Stakes on October 12, when he angled out from behind the leader and made heavy contact with the horse to his outside. The judge said Oliver’s actions were calculated and intentional, and had created a clear circumstance of potential risk.

‘‘In my view, the applicant exhibited a cavalier attitude, which is not moderated by his explanation to the effect that jockeys will commonly try to take another horse out, notwithstanding the rules,’’ Jenkins said.

‘‘The applicant, as a very experienced professional jockey, is aware of the attendant dangers of placing another jockey at risk of falling and the consequential danger to other riders and horses where a fall occurs in front of a field of riders.

‘‘By forcing his mount into the pathway of another jockey and abruptly displacing that jockey and his mount out of the way, the applicant displayed a reckless indifference to the possible grave consequences.’’

Oliver needs his suspension cut from 20 to 17 meetings to allow him to ride on Saturday.

He has rides booked on Flying Artie in the Group One Coolmore Stud Stakes and Kiwi galloper Highlad, trainer by Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman in the Group One Victoria Derby.

Jenkins will hand down her decision on the penalty today.