A knee injury has forced Australian Cup winner Fifty Stars to be ruled out of contention for the 2020 Group 1 $5m Ladbrokes Cox Plate (2040m) at The Valley on October 24.

Fifty Stars, above, won’t run in the 2020 Cox Plate at The Valley. Photo by Ultimate Racing Photos.

The Tom Dabernig and Ben Hayes trained Fifty Stars was in terrific form during the 2020 Melbourne Autumn Carnival which culminated with a win in the Group 1 $1.5m Australian Cup (2000m) at Flemington in early March.

The Lindsay Park Team were preparing Fifty Stars for the Cox Plate but co-trainer Ben Hayes said that the six year old will now have a delayed start to his Spring Carnival campaign with the Group 1 $1.5m Kennedy Cantala (1600m) at Flemington on Day One of the Melbourne Cup Carnival on October 31 now on the agenda.

“He just jarred his knee a bit,” Hayes told Racenet.

“He’s on the go-slow at the moment and just doing little bits of work at the moment so we won’t see him until later this spring.”

“We’ll start him off in the (Group III) Moonga Stakes (1400m) on Caulfield Cup day and then we’ll look at backing him up in Melbourne Cup week.”

“We’ll try to get him to the Kennedy Cantala and then into the Emirates (Mackinnon Stakes).

“Because he had that setback we want to get him 100 percent right.

“He’ll have a lighter spring before the autumn.”

Fifty Stars is now looking to kick off his Spring campaign in the Group 3 $200,000 Neds Moonga Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield on October 17 while the Group 1 $2m Seppelt Mackinnon Stakes (2000m) is to run at Flemington on the final day of the four day Melbourne Cup Carnival.

Betting at Ladbrokes.com.au for the 2020 Cox Plate had Fifty Stars marked at $51 way behind the $10 favourite Master Of Wine.