MELBOURNE (Reuters) – The Danny O’Brien-trained King of Leogrance has been scratched from Tuesday’s A$8 million ($5.6 million) Melbourne Cup after being found lame, reducing Australia’s most famous horse race to 23 runners, stewards said.
“The horse was inspected by RV veterinarians upon request of the stable and was found to be lame in its off fore leg,” Racing Victoria (RV) stewards said in a statement.
The two-mile handicap starts at 3 p.m. local time (0400 GMT) at a closed Flemington Racecourse.
Local trainer O’Brien still has three runners, including last year’s winner Vow and Declare, Russian Camelot and Miami Bound.
Aidan O’Brien-trained Tiger Moth was an 11-2 favourite among bookmakers to win “the race that stops the nation”.
($1 = 1.4178 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by Richard Pullin)
