Defiantly at risk of missing Melbourne Cup

The Joseph O’Brien-trained Defiantly faces an anxious wait before discovering if he can take his place in the line-up for the Lexus Melbourne Cup on Tuesday.

The son of Kameko is a leading contender for the ‘race that stops a nation’, but is one of five horses who will have to be reexamined by vets on Saturday following Racing Victoria’s mandatory inspections on Thursday.

Defiantly was found to be missing his right-hind shoe and a change in his gait was identified by vets. The four-year-old will be reshod before being looking at again.

British raiders Enfjaar (Roger Varian) and Wine Dark Sea (Harry Charlton) will also be looked at again, alongside the former Willie Mullins-trained Vauban, 12th in the race last year and now trained by Gai Waterhouse.

Enfjaar finalised his preparations for Australia’s greatest race with a third-place finish in the Group One Caulfield Cup, beaten just a length by Kingswood and Saint George.

Trained by Ciaron Maher, Saint George was the general second-favourite but has been withdrawn after diagnostic imaging experts believed he was at a high risk of injury following a review of CT and PET scans, while vets also advised the withdrawal of the Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained The Euphrates.