Ruth Carr has ruled her stable star Sovereign Debt out of Royal Ascot and will instead look at Group races later in the season.
The eight-year-old has been a shining light for Carr since joining her Yorkshire yard at the end of March.
Formerly placed in the Group 1 Lockinge Stakes as a four-year-old, the Lady O’Reilly-owned gelding was initially with Michael Bell before making a switch in the spring of 2014 to the late Dandy Nicholls.
Upon winning the hugely valuable Irish Thoroughbred Marketing Cup in Qatar at the end of February he then joined the Carr operation after Nicholls announced he had quit the training ranks.
Speaking to At The Races, Carr said: “We’ve decided he definitely won’t be going to Royal Ascot– we’re going to keep chipping away at the Group 3s and Group 2s.
“We know he’s capable at that level and it keeps his confidence high. He might just be a better horse round a bend than on a straight track at Ascot, and there are plenty of other races to look at.
“There’s the Celebration Mile at Goodwood and a race over one-mile-one at York we can look at. He seems to be in the form of his life.”
He seems to be in the form of his life
After just failing in a Listed race at Kempton at the beginning of April, he went on gamely to win the valuable All-Weather Mile Championships Stakes at Lingfield on Good Friday.
Stepping back into Group company, the son of Dark Angel fended off the Richard Fahey-trained Gabrial to score by half-a-length in the bet365 Mile at the end of the month.
He pulled off an emotional third-straight win for his trainer and rider James Sullivan when running out a ready winner of the Diomed Stakes on Derby day, conceding 5lbs to his rivals in the process.
