Caulfield Cup runner-up Saint George will need to pass a second veterinary inspection before he is cleared to run in Saturday’s $6 million Cox Plate (2040m) at Flemington.
The Ciaron Maher-trained five-year-old was the only horse to fail Racing Victoria’s initial veterinary inspections on Thursday, with officials identifying a change in his gait, Just Horse Racing reported.
Saint George was presented for the examination without shoes and will be inspected again on Friday morning after being reshod.
Blake Shinn has been booked to ride him from barrier six, provided he receives veterinary clearance.
Ten others passed, Ceolwulf still to come
Racing Victoria veterinarians inspected 11 of the 12 final acceptors on Thursday, and the other 10 were all passed fit to race, according to the report.
Read more: Cox Plate 2026 Final Field: Saint George Among 12 Accepted
The only runner yet to be examined is the Joseph Pride-trained Ceolwulf, who is travelling from Sydney to Melbourne and will be inspected on Friday morning after he arrives.
Racing Victoria is expected to give a further update on Saint George and Ceolwulf after Friday’s inspections.
All acceptors for the Cox Plate, Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup must pass official pre-race veterinary inspections as a condition of entry. If there is a question over a horse’s suitability to race, Racing Victoria’s protocols say a further examination is carried out by a panel of two Racing Victoria vets and an independent vet appointed by Racing Victoria.
Read more: Mark Zahra Misses Cox Plate, John Allen to Ride Middle Earth
Second vet check in a week
It is not the first time Saint George has had to pass an extra check this spring. Ahead of last Saturday’s Caulfield Cup, he was the only runner in the field who needed a further race-day examination after being re-plated, Racing.com reported. He passed that check and ran second to Kingswood in the 2400m Group 1.
He is now backing up just seven days later and dropping back to 2040m at weight-for-age, one of four Maher runners in the race alongside Land Legend, Light Infantry Man and Middle Earth.
Maher had been upbeat about how the horse pulled up from the Caulfield Cup. “He bounced out of his Caulfield Cup run. It wasn’t a very taxing run at all. He sat there and sprinted down the straight,” Maher said, as quoted by Just Horse Racing.
Maher said Saint George would wear blinkers on Saturday and added that “he needs a firm deck, so hopefully it doesn’t rain”.
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