Smart three-year-old Too Good To Refuse is out of the Sydney autumn carnival and will instead be targeted at Brisbane’s feature races.
Too Good To Refuse ran second last in the Group Two Hobartville Stakes at Rosehill on Saturday following an injury scare earlier in the week when he was stung by a stingray while swimming at Nudgee Beach, a popular spot to exercise horses in Brisbane.
“I have been swimming horses there for years but now I have had two incidents with stingrays in the past three months,” trainer Desleigh Forster said.
“Old (retired sprinter) Adebisi got hit by one a couple of months ago but there was no puncture.”
Too Good To Refuse did suffer a puncture wound which bled during the running of the Hobartville Stakes.
“Stewards had him vetted when he got to Sydney and there was no reason he shouldn’t have started. The horse has never been lame,” Forster said.
“He got a bump going out of the barriers and then got caught three-deep the whole way. He is a much better horse than that.”
Forster said she could have pressed deeper into the Sydney carnival with Too Good To Refuse but opted for a more patient approach.
“I don’t want to take any chances with him and he is only three, there will be other big races in Sydney later in his career,” she said.
Forster said Too Good To Refuse would have a couple of weeks in the paddock before he was brought back for the Brisbane winter carnival.
He is likely to return in the Toowoomba Guineas on April 16 before the stable decides whether to aim towards the Group One Stradbroke Handicap or the Group Two Queensland Guineas.
