Last year's G1 Melbourne Cup winner Protectionist (Ger) (Monsun {Ger}) will miss the opportunity to defend his crown after being ruled out of contention for that Nov. 3 contest due to injury, according to Racing.com. The 5-year-old finished 15th of 18 in last weekend's G1 Caulfield Cup, after which bruising was discovered in all four fetlocks.
“He pulled up really lame across his lumbar, back area on Sunday morning,” trainer Kris Lees told Racing.com's RSN. “He's very tender. We sent him for scintigraphy, and that was done on Tuesday. He's come back with subchondral bone disease in all four fetlocks. So with the pain across his backside all secondary, he's basically got severe bruising in all four fetlocks. It's causing him to lose his action when he's under pressure.”
Lees said the Australian Bloodstock colorbearer would go for a six-month spell, and he didn't rule out a return to Europe for the entire.
“Whether his bones aren't handling our training surfaces, and our racing surfaces here in Australia, he certainly needs a proper break this time to get him right,” Lees added. “Europe would still be an option I would imagine.”
Protectionist won the Melbourne Cup in his second Australian outing for German trainer Andreas Wohler, and was transferred to Lees thereafter. He has not win since.
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