Happy Lucky Dragon Win | Woods or Wire: who copped the worst slap?
Trainer Sean Woods received a slap on the wrist for slapping a horse on the face prior to the Classic Cup – an act hardly entering the realms of extreme animal cruelty, but nonetheless it wasn’t a good look.
Trainer Sean Woods received a slap on the wrist for slapping a horse on the face prior to the Classic Cup – an act hardly entering the realms of extreme animal cruelty, but nonetheless it wasn’t a good look.
Wire To Wire was heading out for his first start in Hong Kong and you can’t blame him for being a little hesitant. He was 68-1 and hopelessly overmatched by a couple of stars in Designs On Rome and Able Friend. He didn’t need to do any form to know he was going to get his butt kicked. But when he dug his heels in and didn’t want to head onto the track, Woods resorted to his drastic measures.
In 2006, English jockey Paul O’Neill made headlines when he head-butted his horse, City Affair, before a race at Stratford after the horse had thrown him off. He received a one-day ban – much to the disgust of animal liberationists who felt the punishment should have been far more severe.
Wire To Wire may have also been hesitant to give his best in the Group One after speaking to fellow Woods-trained charge Autumn Gold back at the stables. Autumn Gold has his own tale of woe after being thrown in the deep end last season.
Autumn Gold looked a promising import, rated 90 after an impressive runner-up performance on debut in a Class Two handicap. Woods entered the 2013 Derby-eligible gelding in the 2012 Jockey Club Cup at his second local start where a 1-3/4 length fifth to the 126-rated California Memory forced handicappers to raise the horse’s rating 10 points to 100.