Melbourne Cup runner-up Marmelo has had an official warning placed on his racing record after trying to bite a rival runner shortly after the start of Tuesday's race.
Racing Victoria stewards pored over video footage that showed Marmelo turning his head and trying to savage Avilius, which jumped from the stall adjacent, in another bizarre post script to a drama-charged Melbourne Cup.
Biter: Marmelo (right) finishes second to Cross Counter in the Melbourne Cup.Credit:AP
Horses are rarely known to be aggressive towards other runners during a race, but Marmelo clearly was perturbed by something in the opening moments of the $7.3 million Cup.
It was just one of a number of storylines stemming from last year's joint favourite in this year's race with the horse pulling up lame in the off hind leg despite finishing only a length behind the Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashin Al Maktoum-owned Cross Counter.
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Marmelo will require a vet clearance before being allowed to race again.
His jockey Hugh Bowman, a four-time Cox Plate winner and regular rider of Winx, was suspended for a month after being charged with three different rule violations.
Bowman was stung for weighing in one kilogram overweight on Marmelo, causing interference to Japanese raider Chestnut Coat rounding the home turn and using the whip 12 times on Marmelo before the 100-metre mark – seven more than allowed.
His 35-meeting suspension is one of the biggest on record in the Melbourne Cup.
But Marmelo's trainer Hugh Morrison was happy with his horse's effort after English-based gallopers ran first, second and third despite never having won the Cup before.
"It's fantastic to be second in a Melbourne Cup, but to be second when you nearly won [is hard]," Morrison said. "You've got to give credit to [Cross Counter's trainer] Charlie [Appleby] and I thought his was the horse to worry about."
Irish horse The Cliffsofmoher was the fifth horse to die from a Melbourne Cup-related incident in the past six years when he fractured a shoulder passing the winning post the first time.
Avilius, trained by James Cummings, collided heavily with The Cliffsofmoher after having earlier been the victim of an attempted bite from Marmelo, and beat only one runner home of those which completed the course.
Adam Pengilly is a Sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.
