Here De Angels cops double penalty

By Robert Windmill

MELBOURNE, May 2 AAP - Rogue sprinter Here De Angels has been issued with a rare double penalty after rearing up in the barriers and being declared unfit to run at Caulfield on Saturday.

The five-year-old is a serial offender and Racing Victoria chief steward Terry Bailey says his panel has no option but to ban him from racing until he completes two official trials to their satisfaction.

Caulfield starter Doug McLure said Here De Angels gave no warning that he was going to rear up in the gates before the start of the Toledo Handicap (1100m).

"He reared high and went over backwards and made contact with the back of the stalls," McLure said.

Formerly trained by Lee Freedman, Here De Angels has been a problem horse since he copped his first ban from racing when scratched at the barriers at Caulfield in January 2007.

The multiple Group Three-winning sprinter was transferred to trainer Mark Kavanagh this campaign and Adelaide stewards ordered him to trial again after he played up and was scratched from the Irwin Stakes on March 9.

He missed the start a length when he had his first start for the stable and finished second at Caulfield on April 11.

"I can't see any room to move," Bailey said.

"We have to see him (trial) twice."

Kavanagh's stable foreman Merv Harvey said Here De Angels was an unpredictable horse on race days.

"It is probably best he goes out for a month or so," Harvey told stewards.

"He is starting to get dirty on the world.

"You can give him all the barrier practice but come race day, you know him as well as I do."

Harvey said Here De Angels had no vices in the stable but "something goes snap" at the races.

"He is the quietest horse in the stable but as soon as he gets to the races he goes off in the barriers," he said.

"You go to the races and put your heart in your mouth."

Here De Angels was unbeaten in his first six starts but has won only two of his past 15 races.

He is a four time Group Three-winning sprinter of the McKay Stakes, McEwen Stakes, CMA Recycling Stakes and Rubiton Stakes.

The Peter Snowden-trained six-year-old Posadas showed he was a horse still on the rise when he won the Toledo Handicap by 1-3/4 lengths from Snappy Tom with Miewa's Quest a half-head away third.

"He is a heavy, big-boned horse and has taken a while to grow into himself, handle his weight and support himself," Snowden's foreman son Paul said.

Posadas has won 10 of 33 starts and Snowden said the stable was hopeful that now he was more mature he would be able to run a strong 1200 metres, and possibly further.

AAP TURF rw/cw/gm