Oxted, who secured a famous victory for connections when landing the Group 1 July Cup, is to bypass Haydock’s Sprint Cup on Saturday after disappointing trainer Roger Teal in a gallop on Tuesday morning.

Speaking to the Racing Post, Teal said: “I’m not going to run Oxted and wanted to let people know as soon as possible.

“He just worked below par this morning and with the ground being on the easy side I don’t want to risk him. I’d rather wait for Champions Day at Ascot.

“We’re waiting on some blood tests because he didn’t work his normal self this morning and you want to be 100 per cent sure you’re firing on all cylinders going into a race like that. Everything was fine before today, but you know what horses are like.

“I’ve made the first entry stage for Ascot, which will be our next target. Unfortunately, these things happen and we were delighted with him over the weekend, but today we weren’t.

“We’ll wait on those results, but he’s good at telling us things and you’ve got to listen to the signs. If we ignored them and he disappointed on Saturday we’d be kicking ourselves.”