Postponed ruled out of King George defence

Postponed had been odds-on to win a second King George at Ascot. Picture: Racingfotos.com

Postponed has been ruled out of the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot on Saturday due to a respiratory infection.

A narrow winner of the midsummer highlight last season, when trained by Luca Cumani, the five-year-old was set to return to Berkshire as a red-hot favourite to retain his crown after having completed a hat-trick for Roger Varian with a brilliant display in the Coronation Cup at Epsom.

But Varian has been forced to take Postponed out of the reckoning of the QIPCO British Champions Series feature after he returned an unsatisfactory scope on Wednesday morning.

The Newmarket handler reavled on  http://www.varianstable.com: “Up until this point, Postponed had not given us any worry during his training regime.

“However, we felt Postponed did not work with his usual zest (on Wednesday morning) and a subsequent scope showed he is suffering from a respiratory infection.

“This news is obviously very disappointing and it is a real shame for Sheikh Mohammed Obaid (owner), the team and the racing public that he will not line up on Saturday.

“But, as is always the case, the interests of the horse must come first. If he is not 100 per cent, the only sensible thing to do is not to run.”

Varian does not expect the setback to hold up his stable star for long.

He added: “We will let the horse recover from this setback before making a plan of where he runs next. We still have many big days ahead to look forward to.”