Cheekpieces backed to keep Oxagon competitive in Classic mission

Connections of Oxagon remain hopeful the application of cheekpieces can be the final piece of the puzzle for Oxagon in his bid to land Betred 2000 Guineas glory at Newmarket on Saturday.

The John and Thady Gosden-trained Frankel colt made an impressive reappearance when winning the Craven Stakes by two lengths. He was beaten in the Dewhurst – albeit less than four lengths – and Futurity Trophy at the back-end of last season, but looked a different horse back at Headquarters, sporting the headgear for the first time.

Ted Voute racing manager for owner Prince Faisal, said: “He’s really good, hopefully we found the key to him with the cheekpieces last time. We struggled at the end of last year, he did run well in the Dewhurst but the trainer (John Gosden) said it was his mistake to run in the Futurity after that. In the Champagne (second to Puerto Rico), Oisin (Murphy) said he should have made more use of him.

“He looks very square and probably a sprinter, but I think when they put the cheekpieces on they sort of felt that it wasn’t the distance that was the problem, it was more trying to focus his competitiveness.

“He showed that in the Craven, and if he can run a similar race to that we should be all right.

There will be no French representation in the colts’ Classic after Francis-Henri Graffard’s Samangan was ruled out.

A winner of three of his four starts at two, including a Chantilly Group Two on his final appearance last term, the son of Blue Point returned with an encouraging second in the Prix Djebel and was on course to make a raid on the Rowley Mile.

However, he will not get the opportunity to add to Graffard’s growing CV after the trainer and the Aga Khan team decided to exercise caution following a less than perfect 24 hours.

Nemone Routh, French racing manager for the Aga Khan Studs, said: “We weren’t 100 per cent pleased with his bloodwork this morning and we weren’t 100 per cent convinced after his work yesterday. It is nothing serious, but obviously going into a Classic you need to be 100 per cent.

“After we got the bloodwork back this morning we made the decision not to run.

“I don’t think it will keep him out for long and we’ve had a few similar examples. The filly who won yesterday (Zayida at Chantilly), we weren’t very happy with her first run a month ago and then she came right back to her normal form.

“It’s nothing particularly serious, just at this moment he is not 100 per cent.”