Owners unhappywith Roi d’jeu’sweight
Quality Cambridge stayer Roi d’jeu was last week withdrawn from the $200,000 Wellington Cup at Trentham in protest at what his owners claim was unfair handicapping.
They have vowed that the horse will do his future racing in Australia.
Shaune Ritchie-trained Roi d’jeu was given top weight of 59kg when weights were released last Wednesday and had occupied the third line of betting with TAB bookmakers in their futures market.
However, owners Gerard Peterson and Keith Parsons chose not to accept for the Cup in direct response to the weights.
Parsons contacted the media to vent his anger at the situation, noting that Trentham Stakes winner Six O’clock News had not received a rehandicap for the Wellington Cup in accordance with the conditions of the race, yet runner-up Roi d’jeu effectively went up 1kg for finishing second.
‘‘The irony of it is that if Roi d’jeu had won the race, we wouldn’t have got the penalty, and Six O’clock News would have,’’ he said.
‘‘To ask our horse to carry 59kg was just too much. It might be okay if he’d won $800,000 and 15 races, but he’d only won six races for $148,000 and I just don’t think it was a fair impost.
‘‘If he did well in the Wellington Cup carrying 59kg, he’d be weighted out of everything from there on in, and the only way to get his rating back down would be to pull him up in his next few races, and that’s not the kind of thing I’d like to get involved in.
‘‘Do they want the best horses racing in New Zealand or not?’’
Parsons said Roi d’jeu will head to Sydney-based Kiwi trainer Craig Ritchie to prepare for the Sydney Cup and do his future racing there.
Handicapper Dean Nowell agreed Roi d’jeu’s weighting was not ideal, but he was bound to handicap the Cup under the race conditions.
He said there was an unfortunate oversight from the Wellington Racing Club made in setting the conditions for the Cup in that the weights should have been declared before the Trentham Stakes was run.
‘‘Had the weights been done last Friday (before the first day), Roi d’jeu would have been on 57kg and he would have gone up to 58kg when Booming came out, so he was a kilo worse off,’’ Nowell said.
‘‘The conditions were that the winner of the Marton Cup and the winner Trentham Stakes shall be weighted on what rating they were on going into that race, but they didn’t say anything about any of the placegetters.’’