Melbourne Cup-nominated mare retired
She was good enough to win the Queensland Oaks but the true potential of Provocative will never be known. Her Cambridge trainer Tony Pike confirmed yesterday that the 4-year-old has been retired due to a tendon injury. The Zabeel mare, who held nominations for the Caulfield and Melbourne cups, was found with some heat in her tendon over the weekend and scans on Monday revealed a moderate tear.
‘‘We caught it pretty early and it wasn’t really bad but obviously it was going to take a lot of rehabilitation so, along with the owners, the decision was made to send her to stud,’’ Pike said.
Bred by Nearco Stud, Provocative retires with four wins from eight starts, highlighted by her Queensland Oaks heroics, which helped lift her stakes earnings past $370,000 and ensured she will be a valuable and exciting broodmare prospect. Provocative had been due to start in the Naturalism Stakes (2000m) on Saturday.
The last run of her career was in the Heatherlie Stakes at Caulfield on August 27 when she finished 12th behind Great Esteem.
It was the first start of her spring campaign and plenty of improvement was expected given the 1700m trip was well short of her best distance. Provocative will always hold a special place in Pike’s heart. She was half of his Group I winning double at Eagle Farm back in June when Sacred Elixir also won the JJ Atkins Stakes.
An injury to jockey Gary Walsh has resulted in a change of plans for the well-performed hurdler Just Ishi.
Trainer Gail Temperton had intended to give the gelding an outing over the bigger fences, but the unavailability of his regular rider will see him step out in the Carpet Maintenance and Cleaning Hurdles at Whanganui today.
‘‘I thought he would have been steeplechasing by now but Gary got hurt and I wanted someone familiar on him to do that so we’ll wait until next year,’’ Temperton said.
‘‘He’s a great old horse and this will probably be his last run of the campaign.’’
Balham is exceeding expectations in the early stages of his feature cups campaign.
The Don Eduardo gelding’s fifth placing when resuming in an open mile at Hastings following a four month break delighted his connections.
‘‘We were thrilled with him – we didn’t really expect him to do too much at 1600 metres,” said Emma Haworth, who trains the six-year-old with her father David.
‘‘He got stuck on the rail in the worst of the ground and Mark [Du Plessis] was really pleased with him.
A four-time winner from 16 starts, Balham will return to Hawke’s Bay on Saturday for the Aon Insurance Brokers 2000.
“He’ll have one or two more starts after that and his main aim will be the New Zealand Cup,” Haworth said.