Imported stayer Voleuse De Coeurs could be ruled out of the 2014 Spring Racing Carnival after she was found with an infection in her coffin joint.
Voleuse De Coeurs is set to miss the 2014 Melbourne Cup due to an infection in her coffin joint. Photo by: Race Horse Photos Australia
Voleuse De Coeurs was set to return to the races in the Group 1 Underwood Stakes (1800m) at Caulfield on Saturday, but the talented mare pulled up sore after she was given a testing trackwork gallop on Saturday morning.
Trainer Michael Moroney originally thought that Voleuse De Coeurs was suffering from a stone bruise, but tests revealed that she was suffering from swelling in her coffin joint, which is encased within the hoof of the mare, and the Melbourne Cup winning trainer believes that the five-year-old is likely to miss the rest of the 2014 Spring Racing Carnival.
“It’s one of the rarest things I have seen, the vet said he’s never seen anything like it,” Moroney said.
“It may have been carried in her blood.
“She’s on her way to Werribee Veterinary Clinic, but I would say at a guess she may be out of the spring.”
Voleuse De Coeurs made her racing debut under the care of master Irish trainer Dermot Weld in 2011 and he potentially brought the daughter of Teofilo through the grades before she made her black type racing debut with a strong win in the Listed Vintage Crop Stakes (2816m) at Navan in May last year.
She went on to finish third behind Ernest Hemingway in the Group 3 Curragh Cup (2816m) on June 30 and was second in the Group 3 Irish St Leger Trial Stakes (2816m) at Curragh on August 24 before she scored the biggest win of her racing career in the Group 1 Irish St Leger (2816m).
Weld opted against sending Voleuse De Coeurs to Australia for the Group 1 Melbourne Cup (3200m), but the Group 1 winning mare was purchased by Eliza Park International and set for ‘the race that stops a nation’.
Voleuse De Coeurs made her Australian racing debut in the Melbourne Cup and worked home strongly to sneak into the prizemoney in tenth position.
The imported galloper started her autumn campaign with a promising fifth in the Group 1 Australian Cup (2000m) at Flemington on March 8, but was sent to the spelling paddock after producing disappointing performances in both the Group 1 The BMW (2400m) and Group 1 Sydney Cup (3200m).
Voleuse De Coeurs was set to contest both the Group 1 Caulfield Cup (2400m) and Melbourne Cup during the 2014 Spring Racing Carnival, but now looks unlikely to be ready for either race.
