The dream of winning the world’s richest pacing race is over for one of Australia’s most exciting pacers.
The Marg and Paddy Lee-trained Keayang Renegade has succumbed to injury and will be sidelined when the $1.5 million TAB Eureka is run at Menangle on November 21.
The Lee clan had bought a slot in the TAB Eureka specifically for Keayang Renegade.
The lightly raced four-year-old looked amazing winning his first six starts before an out-of-character third at Melton at his most recent run on May 23.
“He’d had time out and we were bringing him up again and found he was lame,” Paddy Lee said.
“We had him checked over and x-rays taken, but they didn’t show anything.
“So, we then got a bone scan done and it revealed he has pulled a nerve away from the bone in a back hock and would require time out.
“The downside is it means he won’t be able to run in the Eureka, but the positive is it’s not something a lot worse.
“It’s unfortunate because we think a lot of him and the Eureka had been a real target.”
In other stable news, Lee confirmed champion trotting mare Keayang Zahara was progressing well towards a racetrack return and would head to NZ in November.
“With all the changes, thankfully the prize money cuts haven’t been as bad as heard they could be in those big NZ Cup Week races,” he said.
“The Dominion has stayed the same ($NZ400,000), so that’s a target with her. What we will need to do is get some standing start trials and maybe even racing into her for practice before it.”
The plan had been to take exciting three-year-old trotter Keayang Bazlenka to NZ with Keayang Zahara.
“Now they’ve scrapped the slot race ($NZ500,000 Ascent), we’re not sure about that. He could still go for the (NZ Trotting) Derby, but we will wait and decide closer to it,” he said.
“He’s only about three weeks away from a trial and we’re really happy with him.”
Keayang Bazlenka won six of his first seven starts before a below par sixth as favourite in the Group 1 NSW Trotters’ Derby on May 9 when he never looked comfortable.
