Lone Eagle team looking for suitable option

Irish Derby runner-up was well beaten on comeback.

Martyn Meade will keep Lone Eagle’s sights lowered for the time being as he continues on the comeback trail.

Having not been seen since suffering an injury in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes last summer, the four-year-old son of Galileo made his return to action at Goodwood last month, finishing an odds-on third of five to runaway Tapster Stakes winner Third Realm.

Connections of the Ballylinch Stud and Aquis Farm-owned colt had considered running him at Royal Ascot, but decided to take a softly-softly approach instead.

Meade, who trains in partnership with his son, Freddie, says he will run again in the next couple of weeks.

“We were going to think about running him in the Hardwicke, but he needs a slow introduction,” said Meade senior.

“He wasn’t really straight enough at Goodwood, which was fine. It was a prep run for him.

“Now we will start planning out where he will go. We will maybe just run him in another Listed race to make sure he wins that.

“Obviously, he is a top-class horse and he has had his problems, so we want to be really, really careful with him.”

Lone Eagle won the Cocked Hat Stakes at Goodwood before finishing a fine second to Hurricane Lane in last season’s Irish Derby at the Curragh.

However, things did not go according to plan when he went wrong in the King George at Ascot where he finished last of five to Derby winner Adayar.

“We don’t want to go too mad,” added Meade. “He should be out in about the next two or three weeks, now we have got all this out of the way (Royal Ascot), we’ll find a nice little race for him somewhere.

“Hopefully he will win to get his confidence and then we will go from there. Slow steps. He wasn’t anything like straight at Goodwood.”

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