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Larry arrives in time to take Cup 24 / 02 / 2010
V ICTORIAN gelding Larry's Never Late notched the biggest win of his career when he powered home to take out an action-packed and controversial AAMI Launceston Cup at the TOTE Racing Centre today.
With underrated jockey Ben Melham in the saddle, Larry's Never Late ($4.20) claimed the leaders 700 metres out and then staved off a determined challenge from local hope Dream Pedlar ($4.70) that battled on well for second while the favourite Growl ($2.00) battled away for third and just in advance of Veloce Cavallo.
The race was thrown into chaos when stewards ordered a second vet's examination of the equal favourite De Fine Lago after an initial inspection revealed the gelding to be lame in the nearside foreleg.
The other vet concurred with the original diagnosis so after consultation with the trainer Tony Vasil the stewards ordered the horse to be scratched from the race
Vasil asked stewards to allow the horse to be saddled up and mounted and allowed to do preliminaries but stewards deemed it unnecessary as in their opinion and the vets' the gelding was too lame to race.
Vets said the lameness was caused by a quartered heel on the nearside foreleg.
Vasil admitted there was tenderness in the heel region but he was adamant it was not bad enough to warrant the horse being scratched.
The late scratching reduced the Group 3 event to a field of only seven, a replica of the field size two years ago courtesy of the favourite Britomart being scratched at the barrier.
Larry's Never Late's trainer Rod Douglas was ecstatic after the race.
"This is brilliant and it should come as no surprise because the horse is a very good stayer and he's proven that today," Douglas said.
Listen to what trainer Rod Douglas had to say about Larry's Never Late's Launceston Cup win - click on the audio link below.
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