A nasty cut has seen Western Australian galloper Marasco ruled out of Saturday's G1 Manikato Stakes at Moonee Valley.
Marasco suffered the injury while being unloaded from a freighter in Melbourne on Tuesday after arriving from Perth.
Trainer Fred Kersley said the wound was not career-threatening but serious enough to prevent him from taking part in the first Group One event of the season.
"It's a flesh wound, it's a matter of how much work he will miss," Kersley said.
"It's not career-threatening but it's annoying and we've just got to be a little bit careful, he's lost a bit of skin. It will take time and heal in its own way in its own time."
The injury is the latest setback for Marasco, whose form tapered last spring when he stepped beyond the mile.
Should he recover in time, the G1 Rupert Clarke Stakes at Caulfield on Saturday week will be Marasco's next assignment.
Kersley has not pencilled in any further races in Melbourne for the six-year-old but said he was likely to also race back at home during Perth's summer carnival.
"But while we're here in Victoria it will be a matter of picking selected races and monitoring his form," he said.
"I think he struggles past the mile. He has in the past and the intention would be to hold him up to a mile. That would just about see him out."
It is no surprise then that Marasco's effort to run second in last year's Australian Cup still baffles Kersley.
"That was the race that tricked me a little bit because he did look like a genuine 2000m horse," he said.
"It must have been a better ride than I thought by Greg Childs."