Owner Dr Marwan Koukash has decided to switch his beloved horse Magic Circle over to trainer Richard Fahey from Ian Williams and hopes that can bring his best ever season out of him.
The eight year old bounced onto the racing scene in the big handicap on the Roodee at Chester in 2018 and added the Group Three Henry II Stakes afterwards in superb style.
He was then put away and aimed at the Melbourne Cup down under but burst a blood vessel during the race and never got to run his race.
The gelding has been the light of his owners life having won some superb races over the years and now he has been shipped over to Richard Fahey he is said to be in the form of his life ahead of this season.
(Credit AtTheRaces) Koukash said: “It’s just a change of scenery. He’s in good shape and I was really looking forward to running him in the Chester Cup.
“He’s in really good form. Richard thinks a lot of him, he had fitness issues last year but he is back to his best and I was genuinely looking forward to seeing him run.”
Magic Circle pulls off his greatest trick to give @ianwilliamsraci and @drmarwanK another win in the 188Bet Chester Cup
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) May 11, 2018
Results ▶️ https://t.co/7iJOPsvjqx pic.twitter.com/GGVImsSa5x
The owner had to make a key decision during Magic Circle's golden year of 2018 of whether to send him to Royal Ascot or save him for the Australian Group One.
On the decision to swerve the 2018 Gold Cup at Royal Ascot, Koukash said: “We decided to save him and protect his handicap mark – had he gone to the Gold Cup and won it then you’d probably have no chance of winning the Melbourne Cup, as you’d carry a lot of weight as a result.
“So we decided to protect him and to me it was more important to try to win the Melbourne Cup than Gold Cup, with all due respect to the Gold Cup.”
Koukash has been known to be a lover of Chester Racecourse and is hopeful that racing can return to the track this season aswell as racing as a whole all around Britain.
He added: “I think racing will be the first sport to come back, it has very limited contact and can easily be managed. I really hope we can see some action by the end of the month.
“Racing this year is not going to be the same as we’ve had before. We just have to adapt slowly and we won’t get back to normality until probably into next year, but I’m quite confident racing will be the first sport to come back.
“I was speaking to the guys at Chester racecourse and hopefully they can find a way of running the Chester Cup later in the year.”