Some tragic news from the David Hayes stables today - two of his imported stayers, Changingoftheguard and Our Aqaleem have both suddenly died in separate incidents over a period of just 24 hours.

Changingoftheguard suffered a ruptured bowel during a routine gelding operation yesterday and was unable to be saved.

Then fellow import Our Aqaleem broke down badly during trackwork and was rushed to the Werribee Equine Centre and had to euthanased on humane grounds.

Our Aqaleem was set to run in Saturday's Group One Australian Cup at Flemington.

The horse was regarded as Hayes' best hope in the Australian Cup and was doing his final prepwork for the Australian Cup when his jockey Steven Arnold heard and felt a noise.

He was immediately lame and on x-rays at the Werribee Equine Centre, it was discovered he had a fractured shoulder. The decision was then made to put him down.