Disappointment as star Yorkshire sprinter misses Qipco Champions Day at Ascot

Julie Camacho’s Commonwealth Cup and July Cup victor was not declared for the Champions Sprint as connections were not completely happy with him.

The three-year-old has been one of the stars of the Flat season having earned the yard their first top level success, their first Royal Ascot win and help Camacho and her husband Steve Brown win over £1.2million in prize money this year, too.

He failed to fire in the Sprint Cup at Haydock last month – when sent off a short price to completed a hat-trick of Group One wins – but following a pleasing racecourse gallop at York last week, hopes were high he could show his true colours again.

But Brown, Camacho’s assistant, confirmed Shaquille – named after basketball star Shaquille O’Neal – would not be heading south tomorrow.

He said: “He wasn’t just tracking through as normal behind with his movement.

“It looks minimal, but given the ground conditions, which are obviously going to be pretty testing, we’re just not prepared to take any chances with him. It’s as simple as that really.”

With options running out, Brown confirmed Shaquille will “probably not” run again this year, while no final decision has been made on the colt’s longer-term future.

Yorkshire still has three representatives in the race, the Karl Burke pair Spycatcher and Swingalong, while Tim Easterby sends Art Power in search of the £284,000 first prize.

The horse they will all have to beat is Ralph Beckett’s Kinross, the mount of Frankie Dettori, who is a short price to repeat last year’s win in the six furlong, 15-runner race.

Upper Helmsley’s David O’Meara has a potential five runners in the concluding Balmoral Handicap – a race he has won three times – including last year’s shock success with 80-1 rank outsider, Shelir.

The North Yorkshire handler has four of the 20 runners – Bopedro, Blue for You, Rhoscolyn and Bennetot, with former winner Escobar one of three reserves. Charlie Johnston’s The Gatekeeper and Karl Burke’s Eilean Dubh are declared, while Richard Fahey’s Maywake is another reserve.

Mostahdaf, winner of the £1m Juddmonte International at York, leads nine contenders for the Qipco Champion Stakes in which the five-year-old will be bidding for a third consecutive Group One win having landed the Prince of Wales’s Stakes and the York showpiece. But testing ground means he could yet bypass the race.

Dettori teams up with King Of Steel on what is set to be his final afternoon of European action and he also rides 2000 Guineas victor Chaldean for Andrew Balding in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes after Inspiral was taken out.

The Aidan O’Brien-trained Paddington beat him nearly four lengths in the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot and he seeks a fifth Group One after his unbeaten run was ended by Mostahdaf at York.