David Pringle’s brilliant sprinter Midnight Dare is out of the Dubbo TAB Million Dollar Chase, and has been immediately retired.
Pringle revealed on Tuesday, that Midnight Dare is believed to have fractured a hock in last Sunday’s heat of the event.
“We haven’t had the x-ray yet, but the vet thinks she might have fractured a hock,” a disappointed Pringle said.
“So she has been retired, we’ll look after her and her hock and then she’s going out to be a broodbitch.
“Unfortunately these things happen, but she is very well bred and the world is her oyster now as a broodbitch.
“The same thing happened to her grandmother (Kiacatoo Pearl) and she threw Shakey Jakey (by Collison) and Buck Fever (by Brett Lee).
“These things happen for a reason. It would have been nice to keep going but she was only going to go until the end of this (Million Dollar Chase) series, until she got knocked out, then we were going to pull the pin on her racing career, so it’s only a couple of runs short. That’s the way it goes.”
Pringle said he wasn’t sure where or when Midnight Dare may have suffered the injury during last Sunday’s heat when she was a disappointing and uncharacteristic distant fourth behind Annabel Keeping.
He spoke with Victorian trainer Jason Thompson who trained Midnight Dare during her Melbourne campaign before she returned to Pringle for the Chase heats.
“He last run at Shepparton she ran similarly, she ran wide all the way around, but she ripped her pad off,” Pringle explained. “She had a let-up and we took her to the trial track over 300m and she went great, only two-tenths outside the record, and she pulled up beautifully.
“Talking to Jason, he watched the replay, she began beautifully, then she bumped the other dog (Lillard) and then she went wide. Jason thinks it might have happened then.
“Beginning the way she did … she wouldn’t have begun the way she did if it was hurting her, but then the way she ran you could tell there was something wrong.”
The Steven Albon-trained Clare Fallon will get the start in the Dubbo final on Saturday night.
