Cesarewitch Trial winner Ocean Wind will not be allowed to compete in the showpiece handicap itself next month.
After finishing sixth in the Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival in March, the Roger Teal-trained four-year-old was switched to the flat and followed up a third-place finish in a Maiden Stakes at Lingfield Park in August with a victory at the same venue just three weeks later.
The Rockingham Reins Limited-owned colt was then victorious in the Cesarewitch Trial Handicap at Newmarket on Saturday and was immediately installed as one of the favourites to win the race itself over the same course and distance on October 10.
However, it has now been confirmed by the British Horseracing Authority that Ocean Wind is not eligible to run in next month’s marathon handicap because he had not run three times on the Flat before the weights for the race were released last week.
Teal confirmed the news saying: “There’s no way they’re going to allow us in, unfortunately. They’re saying he had to have three runs (prior to the weights being released), even though he was given a handicap mark after his first two runs.
“He was given a handicap mark on the day the entry closed. If they’d flagged it up to me that he needed another run, we possibly could have got one into him, but no-one notified us that he was a non-qualifier.”
