From Racenet:

Plastered sold and the Cup could be back on

The saga surrounding last year’s Victoria Derby winner Plastered has taken another twist this morning with confirmation that part-owner Elio Galante and a syndicate formed by champion trainer Lee Freedman have brought out the 60 per cent share held by Janelle Harvey.

Galante confirmed on Greg Radley’s Racing Radio program on 2KY this morning that a deal had been sone and subject to a veterinary clearance the horse will be at Lee Freedman’s Markdel property later today. ”The horse is at Weribee at the moment being vetted and subject to him passing he will go to Lee’s later today,” Galante said. ”We don’t expect the Vet to find anything that would jeopardise the sale.”

With Janelle Harvey being brought out of Plastered the new make up of the ownership of Plastered is that Elio Galante has purchased another 15 per cent taking his stake in the horse to 55 per cent and the syndicate formed by Lee Freedman taking the remaining 45 per cent. ”At this stage I’m not aware of who’s involved in the syndicate Lee has put together as it has not been finalised,” Galante said.

Last week Plastered’s then trainer, Lindsay Smith wrote off the horse’s chances of lining up in Tuesday weeks Emirates Melbourne Cup due to a foot abscess but that decision is now being reassessed.

”The decision is going to be left up to Lee,” he said. ”We’ve sent him to a professional trainer that knows exactly what he’s doing, I’m not a horse trainer I build houses for a living so the decision will be left entirely up to Lee when he gets and makes an assessment of the horse. We’ll definitely nominate him for the MacKinnon on Saturday and Lee will decide later in the week whether he starts the horse on Saturday or he goes straight to the paddock. The foot abscess according to Lindsay Smith is healing very well, better than expected and the horse is almost free of that problem.”

Galante also stated that Plastered’s former trainer Lindsay Smith was given the chance to continue as the trainer of Plastered but the Western Australian mentor declined. ”It was his decision yesterday not to continue with the horse,” Galante said. ”Up until yesterday Lindsay Smith was still the trainer of Plastered. Lindsay called me yesterday and we had a conversation and it was his choice. He tried to put a syndicate together but unfortunately it didn’t happen.”