The William Haggas trained Al Aasy seemed destined to turn up to the King George VI Queen Elizabeth Stakes this season but will now not take up his entry and instead undertake a gelding operation that his connections are hoping will be the key to get him back winning.
The four year old last year showed serious ability when winning back to back races at Newmarket over 12 and 13 furlongs, but went to Glorious Goodwood after that and flopped.
Many might have given up on the Sea The Stars colt after that, but on seasonal debut he stepped up for the Group Three Surprise Stakes over course and distance and ran out a very easy 4 1/2 lengths winner.
Sent into the Group Three Al Rayyan Stakes over 1m4f at Newbury last time out, he could not have been an easy winner of the race, cruising to the front and demolishing a field on the bridle that included St Leger winner Logician and Dante Stakes winner Thunderous.
It was arguably one of the performances of the season and he tried to reproduce that last time out in the Group One Coronation Cup but was unfortunately chinned on the line by the gritty Pyledriver, when he hit 1.06 in running.
Lightning seemed to strike twice for Al Aasy as last time out in the Group Two Princess Of Wales's Tattersalls Stakes as he went upsides Sir Ron Priestley but in the end was out battled to finish second once more.
Having let the dust settle on the performance Angus Gold, racing manager for owners Shadwell Estate, feels the time has come to take drastic action and that means gelding the four year old.
Sir Ron Priestley lands the Princess Of Wales's Tattersalls Stakes!
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) July 8, 2021
The half-brother to Subjectivist bounces back to his front-running best in the Group 2 feature for @Johnston_Racing at @NewmarketRace pic.twitter.com/zJAfakzo4y
He said: “Al Aasy had every chance to go and win the race last week and you’ve got to take the rough with the smooth.
“We’re going to give him a bit of a break and we’re probably going to geld him. We know he handles soft ground, so we’ll give him a few weeks off and then bring him back in the autumn. The King George is definitely out.
“He’s got plenty of talent, he’s just a bit of a thug. Going out on the track, he makes it difficult for whoever is on board.”
Now Al Aasy is set to be given a mid-season break off the back of his operation and could then be in line togo abroad for some of the big international middle distance contests.
“Of course we could keep him entire and hope that he’s going to make a stallion somewhere in due course, but it’s more important for Sheikha Hissa and her family to have these horses to race now,” Gold added.
“This horse could win a lot of money in Dubai or Australia or wherever. We’ve had discussions about it and it’s more his attitude and general demeanour before a race (that is a problem).
“I wasn’t there last week, but William said he got pretty colty beforehand again, so let’s just take the guessing out of the equation.
“We’re going to send him out to the stud for three weeks to freshen him up, so I think it will be September before he runs again.”