Territories ruled out of Palace date with stone bruise
While the problem is only minor, connections have decided not to risk letting him have another crack at Gleneagles.
A top-class juvenile, he beat all bar Aidan O’Brien’s dual Guineas winner on his first trip to England earlier in the season.
Owners Godolphin will feel the blow more than Fabre who will still be represented by the supplemented Make Believe, winner of the French Guineas.
John Ferguson, Sheikh Mohammed’s bloodstock advisor, told www.godolphin.com: “Unfortunately Territories was not sound this morning and it is understood to be a stone bruise.
“He will therefore not take up his engagement in the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot.”
The Prix Jean Prat at Chantilly on July 12 has been nominated as his next target. Meanwhile Jim Bolger’s star filly Pleascach headlines 14 contenders for the Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot on Thursday.
The daughter of Teofilo, recently snapped up by Godolphin, has won three of her five career starts and hit the jackpot last time out when beating Found in the Tattersalls Irish 1,000 Guineas at the Curragh.
A strong Irish representation in the mile-and-a-half contest also features the David Wachman-trained Curvy, who got the better of Derby fourth Giovanni Canaletto in the Gallinule Stakes and has been added to the field at a cost of £15,000.
Aidan O’Brien has left in Words, Wedding Vow and Outstanding, with John Joseph Murphy’s Hot Sauce another for Ireland.
John Gosden is triple-handed through the supplemented once-raced Newmarket winner Gretchen and Entertainment and Zamoura, second and third respectively in the Cheshire Oaks. Pamona (Luca Cumani), Pandora (Charlie Hills) and Yarrow (Michael Stoute) are others to note.
