Last week The Right Rein revealed Metung trainer Bob Triplow’s ambitious bid to win our famous picnic cup, almost 40 years after he raided the Wangaratta backmarker’s mile on foot in 1971.

But his plans were thrown into disarray early Saturday morning when Triplow, who left his Gippsland property with two horses at 2am the morning of the race, drove into the eye of a storm.

“I’ve since found out it’s a better idea to drive via Melbourne, but I didn’t know that at the time so I tried to go through the hills,” Triplow said yesterday.

“I can confirm it’s a pretty scary sort of thing when a thunderstorm starts up there and you’ve got two horses on a float.”

The strain of carrying the float across the treacherous terrain soon took its toll on Triplow’s Range Rover, which started to overheat.

“Unfortunately I was too worried about trying to see the road and looking out for mudslides to bother looking at the car’s temperature gauge,” Triplow said.

“Then all of a sudden I heard this big ‘bang’ and I soon realised what it was — the car had nearly bloody blown-up.”

So at 6am, Triplow found himself and his horses stranded outside Cobungra Station, 22km out of Omeo.

“I knew then my day was done, so I rang the club and the stewards and let them know,” Triplow told.

“I was so disappointed — just about as disappointed as I’ve ever been in my life.

“But I’ll be back, I’ll bring six horses next time and win the bloody thing next year.”

Triplow, who was yesterday in the Gippsland centre of Traralgon looking for a new car, will embark on another road trip this weekend when he tries to win Saturday’s Healesville Cup with Reddy For Kerry and Go Zam.

“I reckon I’ll win it, if I get there,” Triplow joked.