Sheikh Hamdan takes sporting option with Mutakayyef

With Mutakayyef's top-level options limited by being a gelding, his owner Hamdan Al Maktoum takes a sporting tilt at the Juddmonte International with a horse who produced a career-best at a mile last time.

At this meeting last year, Mutakayyef finished a neck behind Mondialiste in the 1m1f Strensall Stakes, but his clearcut victory over subsequent Lennox Stakes winner Dutch Connection in the Group 2 Summer Mile has persuaded connections to raise their sights.

"He's back up to a mile and quarter," said trainer William Haggas. "I don't know whether the gelding or the drop back to a mile has been the making of him. But because he is a gelding he can't run in the Jacques le Marois or Moulin, so he's going to have a dart at this. He is very well and will like the ground."