Changingoftheguard: suffered a ruptured bowel during a gelding operation

  PICTURE: Mark Cranham  

David Hayes stable rocked by double tragedy

Australia: Trainer David Hayes has endured one of the worst 12 hours of his career with the sudden deaths of imported stayers Changingoftheguard and Our Aqaleem.

The ex Aidan O'Brien-trained Changingoftheguard suffered a ruptured bowel during a routine gelding operation on Wednesday and could not be saved.

Less than 24 hours after his loss, fellow import Our Aqaleem - who ran as Aqaleem when trained by Marcus Tregoning - broke down badly during trackwork and was rushed to the Werribee Equine Centre, where he was put down on humane grounds.

Our Aqaleem was due to have run in Saturday's Group 1 Australian Cup at Flemington.

A downcast Tony McEvoy, racing manager for Hayes, said the double loss was a big blow to the stable which had high hopes for the pair in this year's Melbourne Cup.

"They were two separate incidents to two Melbourne Cup horses which David went and sourced and he thought he'd found the right horses for the Melbourne Cup," McEvoy said.

David Hayes: double tragedy

  PICTURE: AAP Racing  

"They came out here and he still thought they were the right horses. It has been a terrible 12 hours.

"We've just got to pick ourselves up and keep going."

Our Aqaleem had a history of problems which had restricted the six-year-old's racing career to just six starts.

They included a third to Authorized in the 2007 Derby and an outstanding win at his only Australian start at Flemington in January when he was resuming after two-and-a-half years on the sidelines.

Our Aqaleem wasconsidered Hayes' leading hope in the Australian Cup and was undergoing his final preparations for the 2000-metre race when he suffered the trackwork injury.

"He was doing striding work this morning as his final preparation work for the Australian Cup when (jockey) Steven Arnold heard and felt a noise," McEvoy said.

"The horse was immediately lame and pulled up like he had broken something.

"He was immediately transferred to the Werribee Equine Centre for X-rays which showed he had fractured his shoulder and the decision was made to euthanase him." (AAP)