A horse has been euthanised after falling in the feature event on day one of the three-day Warrnambool jumps carnival.
St Arnicca, trained by Horsham’s Paul Preusker, lost his footing after jumping the second-last fence in the Brierly Steeplechase and stumbled, falling and bringing down jockey Tom Ryan with him.
St Arnicca, pictured in a race in Ballarat last year.Credit: Getty Images
Ryan was able to walk back to the scales after being attended to by on-course medicos and escaped without injury, but St Arnicca suffered a catastrophic injury and was humanely euthanised by the on-course veterinarian.
“The racing incident has been referred to the jumps review panel to consider the circumstances and any potential safety enhancements,” Racing Victoria said in a statement.
“In addition, a post-mortem will be performed on the horse at the University of Melbourne Veterinary Clinic as is standard practice.
“RV extends its condolences to the owners of St Arnicca, his trainer Paul Preusker and his stable staff, who cared for the horse and are saddened by their loss.”
The Brierly was won by Brittanicus for local Symon Wilde, giving him his third win in the race and his second in as many years after Brittanicus was beaten by stablemate Vanguard 12 months ago.
The triumph was jockey Aaron Kuru’s first in the race, and it took a courageous ride to take the lead from Flying Agent with about 1000 metres to go. Despite running out of gas late, he was able to cross the line first.
“Last year he was terribly unlucky. He ran out and mucked up the corner. We set him for this race straight after,” Wilde said.
“He’s a deadset Brierly horse. Just getting him to relax a bit better and funnily enough Will Gordon rode him in a trial here and settled him beautifully.
“But Will was already committed and Aaron does a lot of trialling for me. That was a good, brave ride. There wasn’t a lot of room on the corner. I think that won him the race.
“All credit to Aaron and all credit to the horse. I get so much enjoyment out of jumps racing. I just love it and I thought it was a great spectacle.
“I’ve grown up watching these races and all the great horses over the years. To actually be competing in it, it really is great fun. I pinch myself.”
Kuru said the bold decision to cut the corner at Tozer Road proved race-winning.
“Probably just a bit too brave there, but Lee [Horner, Flying Agent] was taking me off my line and that’s not where I wanted to be,” he said.
“I knew I had the horse to muster if I switched back, but Lee’s horse come up at the second to out-jump me and luckily, I was on a horse of his experience to get me out of that.
“From them on home it was a matter of maintaining the gallop to the line and digging in for a good fight.
“This race has been run for a long time and it is a privilege to be at Warrnambool and I think bittersweet for the stable running second last year and to go one better this year.”
The win was Wilde’s second for the day. Ciaron Maher and David Eustace triumphed earlier in the day, as did Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott with a maiden hurdler, while local Matthew Williams had a two-year-old winner at his home carnival.
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