Spring over for Antino

Tony Gollan won’t press deeper into the spring with his multiple Group 1 winner Antino after his Cox Plate performance left the premier Brisbane trainer dumbfounded.

Runner-up in the Turnbull Stakes behind Sir Delius and Via Sistina at his previous start, Antino started $3.80 second favourite in last week’s Cox Plate, but the seven-year-old gelding never travelled for jockey Blake Shinn and was always at the rear of the eight-horse field.

Gollan and Shinn were left scratching their heads with Antino, who was beaten 7.7 lengths by Via Sistina who made it back-to-back Cox Plates at Moonee Valley, and the trainer had been considering running the son of Redwood again in the Group 1 Champion Stakes at Flemington.

But on Friday Gollan announced that Antino, a New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale graduate, would be immediately spelled despite extensive veterinary tests failing to provide an explanation for the gelding’s below par Cox Plate run.