Canberra jockey Kayla Nisbet looks set to miss Sunday's meet at Thoroughbred Park because of a possible fractured lower leg.
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Nisbet's right foot made contact with a gate ahead of race seven at Gundagai on Friday and she was taken to hospital for scans.
It means Stawell trainer Dane Smith is looking for another jockey to ride Chequer Hill in the inaugural Road to Jericho (3400 metres).
The winner will go straight into the $300,000 Jericho Cup (4600m) at Warrnambool on December 1.
"I'm not sure [who the jockey will be]. Kayla Nisbet was going to ride it, but apparently she's hurt her foot so I have to look for a jockey when I get up there," Smith said.
"I think she hurt it yesterday at Gundagai, she knocked the fence going out of the enclosure or something like that. She had to have x-rays on her foot."
Chequer Hill is looking for long distances. And it doesn't get much longer than 800 kilometres from country Victoria.
It'd have to be one of the longest throws at the stumps in history.
The five-year-old gelding has yet to place in a race, let alone win, and Smith cheekily suggested "the other six horses" were the main threats.
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But he felt the son of Lucas Cranach showed something in his last run - a fifth in a benchmark 70 handicap (3800m) at Ararat last Sunday.
Chequer Hill's one of just seven runners in the race, with Barbara Joseph's Ten Tigers the only Canberra runner.
The others have come from far and wide - Wagga Wagga, Sydney, Hawkesbury, Albury and Wangaratta.
"We're just hoping to have a crack at the Jericho Cup," Smith said.
"We're coming up there hopeful and that's where it's at. If he can run a place I'll be pretty happy.
"We've come 1000km to do something he's never done - to run a place. A supreme optimist.
"He's a horse that needs to get over a lot of ground and there's a only a few races that don't involve jumps that will be suitable for him.
"We can't say we haven't tried. We've had a throw at the stumps."