Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup

[my miss storm cat]

Barrier rogue and diva Ms. Aqua has been retired.

Aqua no more
By Mandy Cottell
April 20, 2007 GROUP I-winning racemare Aqua d'Amore has been retired after failing to pass a barrier test at Randwick today.

The quirky mare needed to show stewards she had overcome her habit of sitting down in the starting stalls in order to be cleared to race in the Champion Mile in Hong Kong on Sunday week.

But she reverted to type and stewards had no option but to maintain the bar on her racing.

"Obviously the owners are disappointed, Hong Kong are disappointed and we're disappointed," Racing New South Wales chief steward Ray Murrihy said.

"Hong Kong expressed to us that they didn't want the horse to come all the way across unless she had completed all the requirements, and she obviously hasn't.

"She did sit down so she's been given an unsatisfactory and she's still under a bar."

Aqua d'Amore passed a jumpout at Randwick last Friday and a trial at the venue on Tuesday before failing at the final hurdle today.

Michael Kirwan, representing owners Coolmore Stud, felt the requirements imposed by stewards on Aqua d'Amore were too tough.

"It was probably a bit much I'd say," Kirwan said.

"It seems silly for a mare to have to trial three times in a week.

"But the stewards were acting in the best interests of racing, and that's how it goes.

"She's retired now,.

"She's finished racing."

Trained by Gai Waterhouse, Aqua d'Amore started 34 times for nine wins, 11 placings and more than $1.9 million prizemoney.

A daughter of the late Danehill, she recorded her biggest triumph in the Group I Futurity Stakes (1600m) at Caulfield last month.

She was also brilliant last spring without winning, running placings in the Caulfield Cup, Mackinnon and Turnbull Stakes as well as finishing fourth in the W.S. Cox Plate.

"She was a top-class mare and a fun mare," Kirwan said.

"She was a real trier and she never ran a bad race.

"She's going to be missed.

"She was quite popular given her antics, but she's off to stud this season and she'll be served by Encosta De Lago."

The retirement of Aqua d'Amore means the Anthony Cummings-trained Casino Prince will be Australia's sole representative at the Hong Kong meeting on April 29.
http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...-32343,00.html