The Melbourne Cup dream is over for South Australian stayer Hasta La War.
Trainer Sue Murphy made the difficult decision, informing Racing Victoria stewards on Thursday they will not be accepting due to a foot abscess.
“It’s difficult but we weren’t going to pass the trot up in front of stewards,’’ Murphy said.
“The good thing is it’s not a tendon,’’ she said.
Despite having to make the gut-wrenching decision, Murphy waxed philosophical regarding the set back.
“It only just puts us a week behind where we were,’’ Murphy said.
“It’s not the end of his spring, we’ll just see how he goes over the next few days, we might go to a race like the Ballarat Cup,’’ she said.
Murphy joked that she wouldn’t be using the word Cup around Hasta La War in the immediate future.
“He was on song for the Adelaide Cup and then had his tendon problem, we were close to the Melbourne Cup and have had this happen,’’ Murphy said.
“I’ll be calling it the Adelaide Goblet or something like that,’’ she said.
Hasta La War will target the 2022 Adelaide Cup with Murphy also eyeing the Andrew Ramsden in May which offer the winner an automatic Melbourne Cup start.
