Rebel Raider's Career In Doubt
- Wednesday, 24 August 2011 02:45
The racing career of dual Derby winner Rebel Raider looks to be finally over after he aggravated an old sesamoid injury.
Rebel Raider was on the comeback trail after a suitable stud could not be found for the entire before heat developed in his sesamoid following his first-up fourth in the Spring Stakes in Adelaide on August 6.
Trainers Leon Macdonald and Andrew Gluyas scratched the six-year-old from last weekend's Penny Edition Stakes and scans revealed a ligament had broken away from the sesamoid.
"I'm not saying he is finished but he probably is because he will be a seven-year-old next year," Macdonald said.
Injury prevented Rebel Raider running in the past two Melbourne Cups with a fractured sesamoid in the 2010 spring prompting his retirement.
"It was devastating last year when he fractured the bottom part of his sesamoid and it was touch and go this year," Macdonald said.
"It healed up all right but a ligament has come a bit adrift from the bottom of the sesamoid which was probably on the cards when he was put under real pressure.
"He wouldn't have come back if they could have found a decent stud for him and now it looks like we are in the same boat again."
A son of unbeaten Zabeel stallion Reset, Rebel Raider won six of his 21 starts.
He is a Group winner from 1200 metres and his two Group One wins were the Victoria and South Australian Derbys over 2500 metres.
His Group Three-winning half-brother Shamoline Warrior will stand at New Zealand's Bluegables Farm this spring.
