Aidan O'Brien was left bemused after his star filly Hermosa finished last of nine in the Group 1 Nassau Stakes at Glorious Goodwood and will now give her some time to recover before he pinpoints her next contest.
The three year old started her season in superb style landing the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket and seeing out the Group 1 mile contest in good style.
She then backed up her seasonal debut potential by landing the Irish Classic contest at the Curragh in much easier style seeing off all the other runners being eased down.
She then went to Royal Ascot in the hope of keeping her unbeaten record for the season in the Group 1 Coronation Stakes but she could only manage second being turned over by the surprise french raider Watch Me.
This saw O'Brien step her up to 1 mile 2 furlong in the hope it would bring more out of the filly but unfortunately it did the opposite and she gave her worst performance of the season blowing out early and finishing way back in the field.
Overall she was beaten by 49 lengths compared to the winner and normally after such a special horse buts in a poor performance like that there is an injury or something else wrong with them but that does not seem to be the case.
(Credit Racing Post) Aidan O'Brien said: "Nothing has come to light with Hermosa and she just seems to have had an off day at Goodwood. She seems fine since and we will give her ten days to recover before we decide where we will go with her next."
O'Brien had a frustrating Goodwood festival fielding 17 runners and not grabbing a single winner which is something unseen in the sport at a major race meeting for the trainer.
One horse the Ballydoyle handler was pleased with was Lope Y Fernandez who was no match for the superb Pinatubo who looks a serious two year old for the Godolphin camp but O'Brien was still pleased with how his youngster ran.
He said: "I thought he ran well in what was a very good race. He seems to have come out of the race well too so I am happy with him."
O'Brien will now be look forward to the next big festival which comes in August and he is hoping Lancaster House can start to be his next star after an eight-length debut success in a Galway maiden on Saturday.
"He is a horse we've always liked but he just had a hold-up in the spring and that is why you've not seen him until now. He's very nice and we were delighted with him at Galway," O'Brien added.