By DAVID NAGEL
THE gods of racing can be so unimaginably cruel sometimes.
The smile that usually occupies the face of Cranbourne trainer Stephen Theodore was wiped clean and replaced with tears on Monday with news that his exciting two-year-old Crack a Roadie had been killed in a freak accident.
Theodore was driving to the Bairnsdale races when he received a phone call from where Crack a Roadie was pre-training, explaining how his stable star was spooked, escaped his handler and found his way onto a road, where he was hit by a truck and killed instantly.
“I’m usually Mr Positive, but this has really knocked me around,” a devastated Theodore told the News.
“Anyone in the game will tell you, it’s just so hard to find a good one, to have that, and then have that taken away is pretty hard to take. Horses try so hard and they break down all the time, and you’re sort of prepared for that, but this was out of the blue, so unexpected, it was just a freak accident.”
Crack a Roadie had enormous raps leading into his first start at Moonee Valley on Cox Plate Day, and lived up to that rating with an eye-catching win in the $255,000 Inglis Banner (1000m). From there, the son of Charge Forward ran second, beaten a lip, in the Group 3 Maribyrnong Plate before ailments took their toll and he ran down the track in the Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes.
Those ailments had been rectified and he’d been gelded. Theodore and the ownership group were excited about the future. Their horse was four weeks away from racing, and the Ascot Vale Stakes in the Spring had been identified as their main target.
“That the toughest thing I’ve had to do,” he said.
“The excitement levels were growing, and then to have to ring 14 owners and tell them what had happened … it’s the toughest road trip I’ve ever had.”
Theodore said people from within the racing industry had been unbelievably supportive.
“Yeah … unbelievable, in a way we’re opposition to each other, but to see the impact this has had on others, really warms the heart. I had (fellow trainer) Ricky Maund almost burst into tears in front of me the other day.”
The real impact of Crack a Roadie’s loss, according to Theodore, will really hit when the spring carnival comes around.
“There’s not many horses that can out your name in lights and compete with the Peter Moodys and Mick Prices of this world,” he said.
“This was one of those horses, but now I’ll probably be watching from Bairnsdale or somewhere like that now.”
It just seems unimaginably cruel.
