Hannon elects to draw stumps with Rosallion for this year

Nick Robson
September 9, 2024 2:19 pm

Queen Anne will be a big early target in 2025.

Richard Hannon has decided not to run Rosallion again this season with the Queen Anne at Royal Ascot nominated as his first major target of 2025.

Having won the Irish 2,000 Guineas and St James’s Palace Stakes he was being prepared for a big clash in the Sussex Stakes with Notable Speech and Henry Longfellow.

However, the day before the race he was ruled out with a respiratory infection and while Hannon had at one stage not completely dismissed the possibility of another run this year, that has ultimately curtailed his season.

“I think that is correct (that he will not run again this season). He’s got nothing to prove now,” Hannon told Nick Luck’s Daily Podcast.

“He wasn’t right for Goodwood and he would have run terrible. He had a lung infection, we put him on antibiotics and after three weeks he was bang ready to go again.

“The ground has gone now so let’s look forward to next year – look forward, not back.”

With a top-quality colt on his hands, Hannon is targeting all the big mile races.

He said: “His (first) big race will be the Queen Anne (at Royal Ascot), there’s obviously the Lockinge, maybe the Sussex then all those big races, maybe the Breeders’ Cup.

“He’s definitely staying in training next year. He’s the dream horse really and he’s a pleasure to have about.

“I just think he’s had a long break and he gets pretty big, he’d need loads of work beforehand, 99 per cent of the time it is very soft ground on Champions Day and I would hate to finish the season on a bad note.

“I would much rather the winter went much quicker looking at a St James’s Palace and an Irish Guineas winner.”