Off-colour Oxted to miss Sprint Cup

Horse Racing

Teal’s July Cup winner pulled out of Haydock after poor gallop.

Oxted will miss the Betfair Sprint Cup at Haydock following an unsatisfactory workout on Tuesday morning.

Roger Teal’s stable star has established himself as one of the season’s leading speedsters, following up victory in the Abernant Stakes with a popular triumph in the July Cup at Newmarket – a first Group One success for both Teal and jockey Cieren Fallon.

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The four-year-old son of Mayson was a best priced 4-1 second-favourite for Saturday’s top-level feature on Merseyside, but Teal has confirmed his charge will not be making the trip north.

He said: “I’ve spoken to the owners, and we’ve decided we’re going to miss Saturday because he just didn’t fire this morning, unfortunately.

“We’ve had a trach wash done, and we’re still waiting on the results of that. Everything was fine yesterday, and the horse worked really well on Saturday, but didn’t this morning.

“We always let him tell us in his final bit of work before a race whether he’s ready for it, and I just wasn’t happy, and you can’t go into a Group One if you’re not 100 per cent confident the horse is at the top of his game.

“It’s devastating for all of us, because we’ve been looking forward to going to Haydock for a long time – but with the ground on the softer side as well, we have to be 110 per cent sure, because if he did run and disappointed I’d kick myself to the church and back.”

Oxted’s next objective is likely to be the Qipco British Champions Sprint at Ascot next month.

“We’ll see what the trach wash shows up, but we have got Champions Day,” Teal added.

“It’s disappointing to be missing Haydock, but that’s horses for you. All the boxes need to ticked.”

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