It’s arguably the most famous double in Australian racing — and it’s been done twice in the past three years.
But Caulfield Cup winner Kingswood has been ruled out of a tilt at the Melbourne Cup, which is also set to lose reigning champion Half Yours from the field.
Kingswood won a dramatic Caulfield Cup on Saturday marred by the death of Ohope Wins following a fall that left Half Yours battered, bruised and needing stitches.
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Neither look set to back up at Flemington on the first Tuesday of November.
Trainer Gavin Bedggood said Kingswood was “sort of on trial” across the 2400m distance in the Caulfield Cup, which he described as the horse’s “grand final”.
“He ran it out strong,” Bedggood told Triple M’s Mick in the Morning.
“In hindsight maybe I should’ve had a nomination in but no, there’ll be no Melbourne Cup for him this year.
“Maybe next year.”
Half Yours won the Caulfield-Melbourne double last year but has been cruelled by the tragic fall.
“No decision at the moment but he won’t be able to work for 10 days so I think our campaign is over,” co-trainer Tony McEvoy said.
“So, as disappointing as that is, we are still overjoyed that he seems OK.
“We are very lucky. He had four staples in a near foreleg and four staples put in an off-hind leg and he had a laceration under his chest, but all pretty superficial stuff in the scheme of things.
“We are just going to get him well. I’d say his preparation is over but that is not a decision, that’s just a feeling. How can you bounce back after that and run in a Melbourne Cup?”
Meanwhile, Bedggood was still on a high but back to work on Monday morning.
The seven-year-old grey took the lead from Enfjaar with 100m left to run and won by half-a-length from Ciaron Maher-trained Saint George.
“It’d been his target the whole preparation so every run in the lead-up to Saturday’s event was around having him in tip-top order for that grand final, I suppose,” Bedggood said.
“It’s great when it can come off.”
He said he felt confident in the win when he noticed Kingswood look comfortable on the bird’s eye view from about 500-600m left.
Kingswood was the widest runner into the straight but avoided the falls and surged home.
“I was kicking stones when we drew the gate we drew … that was a real kick in the guts,” Bedggood said.
“A mile and a half and you have a horse that was a bit of question mark at the trip, the last thing you want to be doing is covering any more ground than you had to.
“But as they started to climb up the hill between the 1400m and 1000m (to go), they were actually running it at a pretty sedate tempo.
“So I was comfortable with where we were. Even though we were covering ground they weren’t going quick.”
