Three days after experiencing one of the most heartbreaking moments of his life, co-owner Luke Henderson is yet to come to terms with his Magic Millions 2YO Classic loss.
No Looking Back lost the $2 million race on a protest lodged by Driefontein’s rider Tommy Berry.
The young filly was deemed to have caused major interference with her stablemate in the final 70 metres of the race.
“It’s been three days and I still haven’t got over it. I’m a broken man,” Henderson said.
Henderson wholeheartedly believes the wrong decision was made in upholding the protest after studying the overhead vision.
“I’ve been replaying the overhead vision over and over again,” he said.
Berry insisted Driefontein was making a final surge when she struck interference when questioned in the stewards room after the race.
However, Henderson believes this was not the case.
“The furthest distance No Looking Back was in front of Driefontein was on the line,” Henderson claims.
“He also said that our horse shifted five horses, I’ve had the ruler up against the TV…and it’s no-where near that sort of shift.
“The initial roll out is actually Driefontein and our horse follows.”
Henderson, who is the director at the Gold Coast Turf Club, feels that the overhead race view footage was not properly utilised during the stewards enquiry.
“I just think it was a completely wrong decision and the vision from the helicopter proves that,” he said.
“Driefontein was a tired horse, it wobbled in on the turn.
“This overhead vision shows all this quite evidently.
“If you put 100 people ahead of this vision I would be surprised if you could get one person to agree with (the protest decision).
“I just can’t see how they came to that decision.”
Henderson feels the decision to relegate No Looking Back to second place was unfair to both the connections and the young filly.
“It’s hard to take when you win a race and you wholly belief that you’ve won it fairly,” Henderson said.
“That filly deserved to win that race.
“The reason I actually got into racing was to win the race, finally I achieved that on Saturday and had the decision reversed.”
Henderson is now calling for stewards to review their decision and reinstate No Looking Back as the Magic Millions 2YO Classic winner.
“I think there needs to be a re-look at this overhead vision and there needs to be a review on this decision,” he said.
“At the end of the day it wasn’t my mistake that was made.
“Let’s have a fresh look at this… and let’s redeliberate.
“It’s evident on this vision that the wrong decision has been made.
“All I can do is try and get the right result.
“What they then do I can’t control.
“I think that the right action is to re-look at this matter.”
Henderson is hopeful No Looking Back will bounce back from her controversial defeat and win a race like the $3.5 million Golden Slipper in April, however he understands that racing often produces more lows than highs.
“We could end up with the next Samantha Miss or look back and see the only chance to win a race was Saturday,” he said.
While Henderson is feeling down over No Looking Back’s Magic Millions loss, he expects big things from another of his horses: Raceway.
Raceway is being tipped by trainer Gai Waterhouse as a possible winner of the Blue Diamond Stakes next month.
“He’ll go to the (Diamond Stakes) Prelude on the 11th (of February) and hopefully he’ll win that,” Henderson said.
There has been rumour that Raceway is a rig, which is when a horse appears to be a gelding but actually possesses the capability to sire offspring.
Henderson said there were no plans to put Raceway under anaesthetic to test this theory until he had paved himself a stud career.
“If he comes out and wins a Golden Slipper or a Blue Diamond then we’ll go and look at that at the time,” he said.
“We’re not going to worry about it until he wins a race that can stand him at stud.”
