Hawk Wing's problems return

Aidan O’Brien will today attempt to work out the sudden loss of form of Hawk Wing after his star four-year-old performed miserably in Royal Ascot’s Queen Anne Stakes.

The newly-elevated Group One event was dominated by Dubai Destination who, at last, confirmed the promise of his juvenile year with a four lengths trouncing of Tillerman but it was the poor performance of odds-on favourite Hawk Wing which concerned the Ballydoyle maestro.

O’Brien was at a loss to understand the performance of the Woodman colt, especially after a positive 11 lengths victory in Newbury’s Lockinge Stakes on his seasonal debut.

“He couldn’t do what he did that day,” he said. “He didn’t run within stones of his form today.”

The racecourse vet later produced the possible reason for Hawk Wing’s downfall when he revealed the four-year-old had finished lame in front at the end of the one-mile event.

This was after O’Brien had said: “He had a lot of problems at the end of last season and maybe we didn’t sort them all out. If we’d gone through him more strenuously at home we probably would have said something was wrong and he wouldn’t have been here.

“He seemed fine but he’s run no race. However, I haven’t lost faith in him.

“We’ll take him home, give him a break and see what we can do to sort him out. Mick (Kinane) didn’t say much, he just shook his head.”