See It Again not given a fair chance!

TRAINER Frank Robinson was thrilled with the Betway Summer Cup preparation race victory of Madison Valley at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Sunday and Nathan Kotzen was also pleased with the run of Royal Victory in the same race, but Michael Roberts was left fuming by what looked to be a premature scratching of the favourite for the race, See It Again.

- DAVID THISELTON

See It Again went three-quarters of the way in and appeared to then back out. The handlers then moved him back towards the gate. When he did not immediately go in the hood was removed. He then circled a few times without the hood. Then, to the astonishment of the racing public, it was announced he had been scratched for refusing to load.

Roberts said, "I went into the inquiry room to watch the replay of the loading. I watched it numerous times and they just never gave the horse a chance.

“He goes more than three-quarters of the way in and the handler in the front then jumps up to get onto the side railing.

“They are big fellas and you can see when zooming in on the video that when going up the handler actually pushes against the horse's head. He has a hood on, so he can't see and he obviously resents being pushed in the head and half rears and then backs out.

Venniker

Shortly afterwards, Rachel (Venniker) was told the horse was delaying the start and he was scratched.

“The amazing thing is here you have a race the whole racing fraternity around the country and the punters are waiting to see, because they are hedging their bets for the richest race in the country (the R6 million Betway Summer Cup) and there are four fancied Summer Cup entries running in this race, so people want to see how they progress and the favourite in the race is just ignored by the starter!”

The inconsistency was another point Roberts raised.