No Breeders’ Cup bid for Pyledriver
King George winner still holds overseas options.
Pyledriver will bypass the Breeders’ Cup as co-trainers William Muir and Chris Grassick set their sights on the Far East with the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes hero. The five-year-old was hugely impressive when beating last year’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Torquator Tasso in the Ascot summer highlight. However, he has not run since, having been sidelined with a soft tissue injury which also ruled him out of Sunday’s ParisLongchamp feature. Muir, who was an interested bystander as he watched the Sir Mark Prescott-trained Alpinista win Europe’s biggest race, gave an upbeat report on last season’s Coronation Cup winner, however.He said: “I thought it was absolutely wonderful for Sir Mark and thought it could not have been a better outcome. I thought the whole day, the way the race went and everything, was brilliant, because Sir Mark is a wonderful, wonderful man. I think it was absolutely fitting. “Looking at the form, we’d have run a big race in the Arc, because the horse we beat in the King George (Torquator Tasso) was third. “No-one ever knows until the day, so take nothing away from the winner – Alpinista did it fantastic.” He added: “Pyledriver is improving. When we did the last test, which was a fortnight on Friday, the vet said, ‘we’ll repeat it in a fortnight and then you’ll be able to crack on’. “He’s swimming every day and wouldn’t have lost a major amount of fitness – he was pretty fit when we found out what exactly was niggling us.
Pyledriver holds off a late challenge to take a fairytale win in the King Edward VII Stakes at @Ascot pic.twitter.com/1tnDg4iev8
— ITV Racing (@itvracing) June 16, 2020
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