Travel restrictions and rain put an end to Commonwealth bid for Wooded

Commonwealth Cup second favourite Wooded will miss Friday's Group 1 highlight after trainer Francis Graffard decided that the travel difficulties involved under the current coronavirus restrictions would prove too big an obstacle.

Neither Graffard nor his staff can travel to Britain without serving a two-week quarantine period, and so Plumatic and Wasmya were sent across from Chantilly to Newmarket as late as possible before their races on Tuesday, with the pair entrusted to friend and fellow Darley Flying Start graduate Kate Grimwade for their short stay.

Neither appeared to run to form, while Wooded's chances in the Commonwealth Cup would not have been helped by the rain that has struck Ascot over the last 24 hours.

"The logistics and the transport have been very complicated and my two horses ran very flat on Tuesday," said Graffard, who landed a first Royal Ascot Group 1 with Watch Me in the 2019 Coronation Stakes. "The transport took a lot out of them. It's not an ideal year for this trip.

"The ground has turned very soft and that won't suit Wooded. That helped us to make the final decision not to run the horse."

Al Shaqab's speedy son of Wootton Bassett announced himself one of Europe's most exciting young sprinters with a dominant success in the Group 3 Prix Texanita last month.

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