Trish Dunell
Early favourite Julius has been withdrawn from Saturday week's Gr.1 Tarzino Trophy (1400m) at Hastings by trainer John Bell.
Despite his narrow defeat at the hands of Melody Belle in Saturday's Gr.2 Foxbridge Plate (1200m) at Te Rapa, Julius remained at 20th on the order of entry for the Group One race, and Bell has sent the seven-year-old for a brief let-up.
The Cambridge trainer was disappointed with the racing surface presented at Te Rapa on Saturday, with the Waikato Racing Club admitting that too much sand was applied to the track during maintenance work earlier in the year.
“His hind heels are red-raw from the sand from the track,” Bell said. “There are horses out of that race and out of that race meeting that have had to have vet attention to flush eyes out.”
Bell said Julius was only a 50/50 chance to gain a start in the Tarzino anyway, so he had elected to back off him.
“We didn’t want another Mosse,” Bell said. “He was favourite for the Railway and never got a start.”