{"id":344286,"date":"2023-11-05T02:21:55","date_gmt":"2023-11-05T03:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=344286"},"modified":"2023-11-05T21:03:01","modified_gmt":"2023-11-05T21:03:01","slug":"aussie-icons-melbourne-cup-fairytale-in-doubt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=344286","title":{"rendered":"Aussie icon's Melbourne Cup fairytale in doubt"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\ufeffustralian racing<\/a> icon Damien Oliver<\/a>'s fairytale Melbourne Cup<\/a> farewell may be over before it begins.<\/p>\n

The 51-year-old legendary jockey was booked to ride Alenquer \ufeff($51) for Michael Moroney in Tuesday's $8 million Flemington feature.<\/p>\n

Oliver will retire in December, and was dreaming of adding a fourth Melbourne Cup to his trophy cabinet before riding into the sunset.<\/p>\n

FORM GUIDE:<\/strong> Expert's comprehensive analysis on 2023 Melbourne Cup runners\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

ULTIMATE GUIDE:<\/strong> Everything you need to know about 2023 Melbourne Cup day\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\ufeffREAD MORE:<\/strong> Why Aussie icon kept riding after double family tragedy<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

But on Sunday Moroney provided a worrying update on Alenquer following a track gallop.<\/p>\n

\"Damien<\/p>\n

\ufeffStewards announced a farrier had found a bone bruise in Alenquer's hoof, and the horse will need to pass a veterinary inspection on Monday to determine if he can run.<\/p>\n

If Alenquer is scratched, Oliver will be without a Melbourne Cup ride in his farewell spring carnival.<\/p>\n

Alenquer had drawn barrier 9 on Saturday night and Moroney was spruiking the horse's chances of claiming the Cup.<\/p>\n

"We wanted to draw a single figure (gate), we just made it under so that's good," he told media.<\/p>\n

"He has had a nice preparation for it, he is pretty much on target.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/RVStewards\/status\/1720949450192130122?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

"You never know until you try. If he can get the right run, and that draw will enable him to get a bit of cover, I think he can (win).<\/p>\n

"We bought him for this race."<\/p>\n

Oliver rode Kalapour to victory in the Lexus Archer Stakes on Saturday<\/a> to book its spot in the Melbourne Cup field, \ufeffbut Zac Lloyd scored that mount given Oliver was already booked on Alenquer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A\ufeffustralian racing icon Damien Oliver's fairytale Melbourne Cup farewell may be over before it begins. The 51-year-old legendary jockey was booked to ride Alenquer \ufeff($51) […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":344288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344286"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=344286"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":344289,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344286\/revisions\/344289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/344288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=344286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=344286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=344286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}