Aidan O’Brien’s troubled relationship with the Melbourne Cup has continued with the stable’s leading Melbourne Cup chance Jan Brueghel ruled out of next week’s feature by Racing Victoria vets.
Coolmore Australia principal Tom Magnier confirmed on SEN Track on Tuesday that the unbeaten entire had failed to pass the stringent tests imposed by Racing Victoria and would not take his place.
“He went through all the protocols in Ireland before departing, he's come down here, the lads have been very happy with the horse, he's been bouncing out there in quarantine, but the vets have come up with a decision that has been made that he doesn't pass the veterinary inspection to run in the Melbourne Cup,” Magnier said.
Jan Brueghel was a last-start winner of the Group 1 St Leger at Doncaster and had been equal favourite for the Melbourne Cup prior to Via Sistina’s Cox Plate romp on Saturday.
However, while that mare was racing herself into Cup favouritism, Jan Brueghel was undergoing a scan by Racing Victora vets, as mandated by protocols introduced in 2021 after a spate of injuries and deaths in the race.
“In accordance with the conditions of the race, Jan Brueghel was presented at the University of Melbourne Equine Centre in Werribee on Saturday, 26 October for compulsory CT scans of its distal limbs,” a statement from RV’s stewards said.
“Reports received from an expert panel of internationally renowned equine surgeons and diagnostic imaging specialists, who reviewed Jan Brueghel’s CT scan results, indicate that the horse is currently at heightened risk of injury.
“Following advice from RV Veterinary Services in relation to the specialist opinions from the independent imaging panel, RV Stewards ordered the withdrawal of Jan Brueghel from the Melbourne Cup on the basis that he was unsuitable to compete.
“The connections have been notified of the Stewards’ decision to withdraw the horse acting on veterinary advice.”
Magnier, whose Coolmore outfit is managing owner of Jan Brueghel, said it was a bitter blow.
“Obviously, I'm just extremely disappointed for the staff, all our team that have put in so much work both at home, travelling him down, getting him here, I just really feel for them because they really were excited about this, but at the end of the day, at Coolmore, the horse comes first, everything about the horse, so a decision has been made and that's that,” he said.
O’Brien has won most of the world’s biggest races, but the Melbourne Cup has so far eluded him.
He has had 14 runners since 2006 and has been twice runner up in the race with Johannes Vermeer in 2017 and Tiger Moth in 2020, both times behind horses trained by his son Joseph in Rekindling and Twilight Payment. Il Paradiso also finished a very unlucky third in 2019, while Mahler was third in 2007.
"At the end of the day, at Coolmore, the horse comes first, everything about the horse, so a decision has been made and that's that," - Tom Magnier
But he has also lost two horses to fatal injuries in the race, Anthony Van Dyck in 2020 and Cliffsofmoher in 2018. He has not had a runner in the race since 2020.
The new vet protocols were brought in the following year.
O’Brien has been critical of the vet procedures of Racing Victoria, telling the Racing Post last month that the measures were ‘ridiculous’.
"It's very difficult for three-year-olds to get through because they are still growing and their bones are still maturing so I wouldn't be sure about any of them getting in and being allowed to run. It's ridiculous really,” O’Brien said.
Those words have proven prophetic with Jan Brueghel, a northern hemisphere three-year-old, now ruled out.
O’Brien’s complex relationship with the Melbourne Cup began in 2006 when his star stayer Yeats ran seventh. Mahler ran third the following year and he then brought three horses to contest the 2008 event.
He was hauled before stewards after the race after all three of his contenders raced on a strong pace and faded to finish at the back of the field.
“We've done our best and didn't get it right," O'Brien said at the time. "Who knows that was going to happen.”
O’Brien didn’t return again to contest the race until 2015.
