The incident was blamed on a lack of visibility for the novice jumpers as they approached the 10th hurdle – an issue later rectified by extending a guiding rail.
Another horse,Gambu,was checked by the fallen Grand Promenade and dislodged rider Richard O’Donoghue,but neither were injured.
“A veterinary examination revealed Grand Promenade to have sustained a serious racing injury and the gelding was humanely euthanized,” Racing Victoria stewards said.
While the second jumps race was run and won without incident at Warrnambool on Monday,jockeys voted 10 to 1 to call off the last two jumps events on the program because sections of the track were considered too hard. All flat racing went ahead.
Warrnambool Racing Club chief executive Luke Cann said the two issues were separate – the “sighting” problem with the second-last jump that led to Grand Promenade’s fall,and the firmness of the surface in the back straight.
Cann said the surface of the back straight was “a little bit more compact than we would have thought”,despite significant pre-meeting irrigation and a penetrometer reading of a soft track.