Dirty scope blamed for Gordon Lord Byron flop
Tom Hogan’s multiple Group One winner pulled muscles when finishing down the field in the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup at at Sha Tin in mid-March and made his first start since on Saturday.
The seven-year-old trailed home a well-beaten eighth of nine runners, but Hogan soon discovered his charge was not 100 per cent.
He said: “He blew abnormally during the race, which he shouldn’t have done as he was pretty fit, so we scoped him immediately afterwards and his scope was dirty.
“It was nice to find something and we’ll just have to sort ourselves out now and see how things are in a couple of weeks. We’ll know a bit more about whether he’ll make Royal Ascot then.”
Solow came out well on top of Cirrus Des Aigles in a clash of superstar geldings in the Prix d’Ispahan at Longchamp yesterday.
The winner travelled in third as Gailo Chop took the runners along in the four-runner event, with Cirrus Des Aigles tracking him.
As the race got serious at the top of the home straight, Gailo Chop still held the upper hand two furlongs out but Maxime Guyon always cut a confident figure on Solow and smoothly picked up the leader at the furlong pole. Cirrus Des Aigles finished last of the four.
