I just read this and figured I'd post it.
Glad he's not going to hk and you know how much I love them there but yeah..... the next Ocean Park sounds good to me.
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Wallace pulls the pin on Valbuena Derby aspirations
28 February 2013, 11:13 a.m.
Takanini trainer Bruce Wallace yesterday withdrew Valbuena from the three-year-old Classic after consulting with breeder-owners Peter and Philip Vela.
Wallace said it had been a tough decision and his racing manager Allan Peard had been keen to push ahead and start but after factoring in his physical immaturity, not having their preferred choice of jockey - Mark Du Plessis - and the complications of a failed sale, the outcome was to turn him out.
''It was toss of the coin stuff,'' Wallace said yesterday.
''Allan was very keen to start him and if he'd won we'd have looked heroes but if he didn't we'd have said he's still six months away and really we already know that now.
''He was always going to need time. It was his achillies heel and James [McDonald] underwrote that when he won on him in the Avondale Guineas and he said then he wondered whether we'd got to the bottom of him.
''He's 16.2 hands high and if I stand beside him he's probably only same as me wide so we'll send him to the paddock and give him time to develop. Mentally he's matured a heap but he still needs to mature physically.
''There was talk he could go to Brisbane for the winter but I'd rather turn him out for a long spell and then look at Hastings, Sydney and Melbourne in the spring and hopefully he might be the next Ocean Park with a bit of luck.''
Valbuena was under offer soon after his Avondale Guineas win on February 17 which had led to some doubt about his participation in the Derby and at that point Du Plessis was told to take another ride and he was booked for Fix.
Wallace yesterday said negotiations between the Vela brothers and the Hong Kong interest had failed to reach an agreement.
''There was genuine interest in him from Hong Kong and there were deliberations about the price aspirations of the owners through this whole process,'' Wallace said.
''He's still for sale and he's the same horse he was when he won the Avondale Guineas but the reality is he's still six months away. We'll still have a Derby runner with Deane Martin in the race but he's largely been the forgotten horse the last couple of weeks.''
Valbuena's withdrawal enabled the Stephen McKee-trained The Grinner to clinch the last spot in the 18-horse field for the Derby, which will be run at 5.46pm and broadcast around the world, including for the first time in three years to Hong Kong, where betting will be allowed.
Favourite Habibi drew barrier one and is the $2.80 favourite.