Charlie Hills discovers reason for Equilateral Royal Ascot reverse

Equilateral returned a dirty scope after his disappointing run in the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot.

Charlie Hills had high hopes for the son of Equiano after a very impressive win at Doncaster on his seasonal return.

But he could only finish 12th of 22 in the Group One, after being sent off at 6-1, and has Newbury’s Hackwood Stakes on July 21 as a target.

“We had a reason for his poor run as afterwards he had a dirty scope,” said Hills.

“He scoped clean (Thursday morning) and we will aim him towards the Hackwood at Newbury. He is lacking a bit of experience but something like that will be the perfect race.

“I think he ran a huge race given he scoped dirty afterwards. He was probably the last off the bridle and he just simply didn’t finish his race.

“We were absolutely delighted with his work going into Ascot and there was no reason to scope him before.

“He has only won a novice contest so far but I’ve got every reason to think he will be top level. These things happen and we now just have to move on.”