Masar fails to recapture Epsom gloss - for himself or the race

It was an ignominious end for a Derby winner poised to take high rank after William Buick brought him home a decisive winner at Epsom last year. Back then, Masar had the world at his feet; now he must make it at stud the hard way.

A graduate of Charlie Appleby’s Moulton Paddocks stable, Masar never showed the same zest in two races this season when he was brought back from the soft-tissue injury he sustained ahead of last year’s Eclipse Stakes. Despite mitigating circumstances on both his starts, the decision to keep him in training at four has backfired.

Given Appleby’s enthusiasm to run Masar again after his tame effort in last week’s Princess Of Wales’s Stakes, the decision to retire him has Sheikh Mohammed’s fingerprints all over it.