Kialla trainer David Moran says he feels a mix of disappointment and relief following the decision to withdraw Lochinvar Art from his pursuit of the Miracle Mile.
The star entire had been the talk of the harness racing world as he fought to overcome a hoof injury in time to win his place in the feature on March 6.
Lochinvar Art was required to trial at Tabcorp Park Menangle on Saturday night and pass veterinary checks before being considered for a wildcard spot in Australia’s richest race. However, Moran made the call on Friday morning to withdraw from the hit-out, with the injury not showing enough signs of improvement.
“It’s the race the whole year that you try to plan for. All of a sudden you are racing for $1.2million and now you are racing for zero, so that’s a bit hard to handle,” he said.
“Now that I’ve made the announcement, it’s a bit of a relief to a degree because your phone never stops ringing, you are trying to get things right and you are careful what you say. So it’s a relief in that way.
“It's disappointing, but what is done is done. I've got to look after him now. He's looked after me.”
Moran said with the injury not improving, it became a somewhat easy decision to pull up stumps on the Miracle Mile tilt.
“We had a pretty good 12 months and it’s only a minor injury. That’s probably the best part,” he said.
“It’s not like he has done a tendon and has got to have 12 months out. It’s a deep-seated abscess (and) the worst part about it is that if it burst yesterday he would probably be fine. He would be going around tomorrow. But it’s one of those things - you just race against the clock…”
Moran said he was very grateful for what the horse had achieved and the support many people have given him over the journey.
Lochinvar Art won the $500,000 Del-Re National A.G. Hunter Cup at Tabcorp Park Melton on February 6 to take his record to 28 victories from 50 starts and more than $1.3million in prizemoney.