Smart mare Angelic Light will miss the Adelaide Autumn Carnival because for a leg injury and will instead be saved for the Spring Racing Carnival.
Angelic Light will be saved for the Spring after developing a leg problem. Photo by Race Horse Photos Australia.
Trainer Robbie Griffiths had been hoping to return to Adelaide with Angelic Light in search of a Group 1 victory after the mare ran second to Platelet in the 2013 Group 1 $400,000 Sportingbet Classic (Registered as Robert Sangster Stakes) (1200m) at Morphettville.
Griffiths hoping to target the Robert Sangster Stakes again as well as the Group 1 $500,000 Darley Goodwood (1200m) at Morphettville on May 16 but after a routine leg scan following her seventh to Lucky Hussler in the Group 1 $400,000 Brown Baldwin William Reid Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley on March 27, Angelic Light was found to have a minor tendon problem developing.
“The leg doesn’t look any different to what it did before she ran at Moonee Valley, it just scans showing a little bit of activity suggesting there is a few little fibre strains in there,” Griffiths told racing.com.
“There is a little bit of activity suggesting that if we pushed forward to Adelaide we would potentially have a problem and be back to square one.
“Rather than take that risk we’ll continue to work on the leg and rehab now and continue to get it right to concentrate on the Melbourne Spring.”
Griffiths is hoping that if he gives the five year old mare treatment and a break now he would be able to get a couple more seasons of racing out of her before she heads to the breeding barn.
“While tendons are very unpredictable, you never say never, but if we have good fortune moving forward the idea of this decision is to get some longevity out of her,” Griffiths said.
“As a mare that has had very limited racing she could probably be like a Spinning Hill and run on as an older sprinting mare and give ourselves a couple more good seasons of racing before she would need to go to the breeding barn.”
Angelic Light came within a nose of winning her maiden Group 1 when second in a blanket finish to Lankan Rupee in the Group 1 $1m Sportingbet Manikato Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley during the 2014 Melbourne Spring Carnival.
The Holy Roman Emperor mare’s best win to date was her nose victory over Lankan Rupee two starts prior in the Group 2 $200,000 Mitty’s McEwen Stakes (1000m) at Moonee Valley.
