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“Scratchy”: Melbourne Cup contender ruled out of spring
Andrew Slevison • August 11th, 2025 12:47 pm
Relentless Voyager has been ruled out of the spring.
The Ciaron Maher import pulled up “scratchy” following his impressive win at Moonee Valley on Saturday and it has since been revealed that a check ligament injury will sideline him for the coming months.
Relentless Voyager beat a small field quite comfortably in the Travis Harrison Cup over 2040m, running on strongly from the rear to score by 1.25 lengths.
He was as much as $81 for the Melbourne Cup just a week or so ago but his odds were slashed to $17 with Sportsbet in the wake of the win.
However, his main target of the Cup will be no longer after succumbing to the injury.
Australian Bloodstock’s Jamie Lovett spoke to SENTrack before the news was confirmed, suggesting the six-year-old gelding would focus on the autumn if the injury was significant enough.
“First of all we’ll just see how he comes out of it,” Lovett said on SENTrack’s Giddy Up.
“He did pull up in the stewards’ report that he was scratchy after the race. We won’t take any risks with him, he’s a lightly raced horse with only 14 starts.
“If there’s any doubt at all we’d back off and get him ready for the autumn and have a good crack next year.
“The vets will go over him this morning.
“There will certainly be no risks taken. If there’s any doubt at all we’ll back off and get him ready for the autumn.”
Another key Melbourne Cup name of Australian Bloodstock’s is Vauban who has already run twice in the race that stops a nation (11th last year, 14th in 2023).
He has had three runs for the Waterhouse-Bott stable since crossing from Irishman Willie Mullins, including a Group 3 win at Rosehill in March, and Lovett is expecting him to have a big spring campaign.
“He’s a very high-profile horse and with that comes expectation,” Lovett said of Vauban.
“He’s an interesting one, when he won first time out we all saw how good he was on his day.
“His run in the Tancred (3rd in April) was superb. He’s had plenty of time to acclimatise and the team were delighted with his trial the other day.
“You would suggest he’s in for a very good spring on the back of that trial.”
Vauban is currently the fourth favourite for the Melbourne Cup at $13 with Sportsbet.
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