Bay Of Biscay’s Brisbane trip officially off

STAR pacer Bay Of Biscay’s Queensland harness racing raid is officially over.

Trainer Emma Stewart last night scratched the Chariots Of Fire winner from Saturday night’s $300,000 Group 1 Rising Sun when all hope of a flight from Melbourne to Brisbane was lost.

Bay Of Biscay and stablemates War Dan Buddy and Harold Smith had been on a waiting list for a flight on Friday after earlier hopes of flying last Tuesday had been thwarted.

“Emma’s notified us there is no flight and scratched her three horses engaged on Saturday night,” Racing Queensland’s Senior Racing Manager of Harness said.

Earlier, Stewart had been adamant she would not travel her horses by road from Melbourne.

Bay Of Biscay, a winner of 11 of his 22 starts and over $830,000, had been a long-time Rising Sun favourite.

He led throughout for his biggest win in the Chariots Of Fire at Menangle on March 1 and then returned from a spell to narrowly but impressively win at Melton last Saturday night.

Connections will now switch their focus entirely to the world’s richest harness race, the $2.1mil TAB Eureka, at Menangle on September 6.

Bay Of Biscay ran second to Don Hugo in the race last year and is $3 prepost favourite to go one better this year.

With Bay Of Biscay and War Dan Buddy scratched, emerging Kiwi pacer Betterthancash and the in-form Jacks Ultimate Fury get into the field as the two emergencies.

“You feel for the connections of those horses and the club for losing a headline horse like Bay Of Biscay, but we’re thrilled to get a start and think he’ll be very competitive,” Betterthancash’s co-trainer Stacey White said.

It makes for a huge night for White and husband David, who have top young trotter Bet N Win as a $1.50 favourite to beat Victorian star Arcee Phoenix in a heat of the Inter Dominion trotting series.

Stewart still hopes to be a major player in Brisbane with a batch of her young stars booked on the next flight on Tuesday.

They include star two-year-old trio, Loucasso, Cardigan Dan and Dynamitedan, who are all major contenders in Australia’s richest juvenile race, Saturday week’s $500,000 Protostar at Albion Park.

by Adam Hamilton, for Harness Racing Australia