The comeback of Chase The Rainbow has been delayed yet again with injury forcing him out of the Doveton Stakes at Caulfield.
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Trainer Rick Hore-Lacy has been forced to take his stable star out of Saturday’s Listed race after Chase The Rainbow sustained superficial cuts to a leg when he kicked a wall in a sand roll.

The Group Two-winner has not started since a first-up Caulfield win in September last year after returning from another lengthy injury lay-off.

The scratching of one of the most interesting runners entered for the Caulfield meeting has reduced the Doveton field to nine with the Mick Price-trained Loveyamadly favourite at $3.20.

Price also has Vicario and Halle Rocks engaged but the trainer rates the resuming Loveyamadly as his best chance.

Last year’s runner-up Undeniably is at $19 to recapture his best form in his final start for trainer Mark Kavanagh.

The gelding is entered for a mixed sale in Melbourne next week with Kavanagh saying he still has more to give on the track from a different environment.

“He’s actually on the market next Friday and ready to move on,” Kavanagh said.

“He’ll be better suited interstate.”

Undeniably was fourth in both the Oakleigh Plate and Newmarket Handicap earlier this year but did not figure in four spring starts.

Kavanagh said the sprinter was still working well on the track and would be a good chance on his best form.

“This is the weakest field he’s raced against for a while. He has worked well enough,” Kavanagh said.

Caulfield was in the dead range on Friday after 30mm of rain this week.

Hore-Lacy said missing the Doveton with Chase The Rainbow was frustrating but not the end of the world.

“It’s not as if it was a target race. It was just a race that he was going to resume from a long spell in,” Hore-Lacy said.

“It’s disappointing but it’s not like being scratched on the eve of a big race that he’d been been set for a long time ago – that would have been devastating.”

Hore-Lacy plans to run Chase The Rainbow on Saturday week at Flemington over 1200m before the Standish Handicap at the same track on New Year’s Day.

The long-term aim is the Group One Doncaster Mile.