La Rocket kept on ice

Surprise St George Stakes winner La Rocket is out of Saturday's $1 million Australian Cup.

The five-year-old gelding has been ruled out one of the three Group One races on Super Saturday at Flemington with a leg injury.

Trained by Dale Sutton, La Rocket burst into Australian Cup contention when he scored a surprise win in the traditional lead-in event - the 1800 metres Group Two St George at Caulfield on February 20 - leaving most of his Australian Cup rivals in his wake.

However Sutton was forced to rule the Rock of Gibraltar gelding out of Victoria's most prestigious autumn weight-for-age race on Tuesday after it was revealed he was suffering from a sore hind leg.

Meanwhile leading trainer David Hayes remains undecided as to whether to run his Irish import Changingoftheguard in Saturday's Australian Cup.

Changingoftheguard, who was also a late scratching from last year's Melbourne Cup, worked at Flemington on Tuesday morning but Hayes will have the horse scoped before deciding whether he is sound enough to contest the Australian Cup.

But even if Changingoftheguard does not run, Hayes is set to have a powerful presence in the Australian Cup with four confirmed runners in Our Aqualeem, Zagreb, recent Hobart Cup winner Growl and the in-form Extra Zero, which is likely to be the only three-year-old to contest Saturday's weight-for-age feature.

Reigning Melbourne Cup winner - the Mark Kavanagh trained Shocking - remains equal favourite at $7 along with the Mick Price trained Heart of Dreams for what is shaping as the most open Australian Cup in years.

Shocking was the pick of the Australian Cup contenders in trackwork at Flemington on Tuesday morning and is aiming to emulate the feat of the great Makybe Diva by winning the Australian Cup after winning the Melbourne Cup the previous spring.