Bug forces Alta Meteor out of Maurice Holmes Vase

By Michael Guerin

The early favourite for Friday night’s Allied Security Maurice Holmes Vase at Addington will miss the race.

Alta Meteor would have been perfectly placed in the Group 3 after beating many of his race rivals off a 30m handicap when returning to racing at Addington 11 days ago.

But co-trainer Steve Telfer says a minor issue will keep Alta Meteor from taking his place in this Friday’s automatic qualifier for the IRT New Zealand Trotting Cup, which has a maximum back mark of 10m.

“He came through that win well but a few days later he picked up a bug,” explains Telfer. 

“It was nothing too serious but he needed antibiotics and missed a bit of work.

“We could have pushed him to get him ready for this week but we didn’t need to.

“So he will head to the races in two weeks instead. That is the beauty of having him up and running early, this won’t affect his New Zealand Cup preparation at all.”

The Maurice Holmes is set to see those who finished behind Alta Meteor last start including Franco Marek, American Me and Mo’unga return for another crack this Friday while an interesting open class newcomer in the nominations is Bazooka for trainer Steven Reid.