Star Tasmanian pacer Beautide will be deprived of the chance to win three successive Inter Dominions because of a leg injury. Harness racing trainer James Rattray confirmed yesterday that his stable star would not be going to Perth WA for the next Inter Dominion series to be run at Gloucester Park because he would not be fit enough to tackle the gruelling series run over three heats and a final during November-December.
"Beau is still in rehabilitation for scar tissue healing from a leg injury which is still preventing him from doing serious fast work, so basically we have just run out of time to get him ready for this upcoming Inter Dominion series," Rattray said.
"When you go to a race like the Inter Dominion your horse has to be 100 per cent fit and that just would not have been the case had we pushed on to the Perth Inter Dominion," he said.
"The welfare of the horse comes first but I'm sure he will be ready for some of the other feature races in the New Year," Rattray said.
While Beautide will be missing from the second Inter Dominion series run this year, Rattray is still hoping to get at least four other stable tenants to Perth.
"I've got Blue Pointer going exceptionally well and his win at Menangle last week was outstanding clocking a sub 1.52 mile rate after a brilliant first quarter in 25.8 seconds."
Rattray also has Modern Ruler, Pachacuti, Roger Ramjet and Devendra nominated with Devendra likely to leave Tasmania this week to tackle a race at Melton in an attempt to lift his Inter Dominion ranking.
The top 30-ranked horses will take part in the Inter Dominion series that comprises three fields of 10 in each of the three rounds of heats with the top 10 point scorers from the three rounds of heats to progress to the final on December 13 that boasts prizemoney of $1.3 million.
Rattray will make a decision on whether to take the in-form Modern Ruler to Perth after he contests two feature races in Queensland.
Modern Ruler will line up in the Gold Coast Cup at Albion Park on Saturday night and then progress to the Group 1 Queensland Pacing Championship at the same venue a week later.
"Modern Ruler has had his share of issues with travelling but he is getting better all the time so we will have to wait and see how he goes in Queensland at his next two starts before making a final decision on taking him to WA," Rattray said.
When the second list of rankings were released late last week Modern Ruler was at 24 so would be guaranteed a start in the series, however Devendra is on the borderline at 38 and needs to win a decent race impressively in Tasmania or at Melton in Victoria to work his way up the list.
Latest rankings of Rattray-trained horses nominated for the Inter Dominion series.
Modern Ruler – 24.
Devendra – 38.
Pachacuti – 71.
Blue Pointer – 65.
Roger Ramjet – 78.
Peter Staples