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Roger Varian ponders next move for Rahiebb
By Racing TV
Last Updated: Fri 3 Jul 2026
Roger Varian retains unwavering confidence in Rahiebb despite having to return to the drawing board after his star stayer failed to see out the stamina-sapping Gold Cup trip at Royal Ascot.
Last year’s narrow St Leger runner-up headed for a Gold Cup rematch with his Doncaster conqueror Scandinavia on a crest of a wave having dazzled in the Yorkshire Cup on his seasonal return.
However, while Aidan O’Brien’s four-year-old relished the two-and-a-half mile test the Gold Cup presented, Rahiebb’s petrol gauge was blinking in the closing stages, leaving Varian to conclude that the son of Frankel was simply a non-stayer on the day.
Varian said: “The Gold Cup didn’t go as hoped for, but I’m hoping it will just be the case – and time will tell – that he didn’t get home over that extended trip.
“We really thought he would stay, but equally you never know until you ask them and he came off that home bend and made a move but he couldn’t sustain it.
“We have to believe that he didn’t stay and that he is still a good horse with a bright future. So we will have to rejig a little bit but he has come out of the race well and we haven’t lost faith in him, but now it needs a little rethink of where we are going.”
Rahiebb holds an entry in the Al Shaqab Goodwood Cup and while Varian has not ruled that race out as a possible next port of call, it appears there is still plenty of discovery to be done as the Newmarket handler attempts to nail down the colt’s optimum trip.
“I think he should get two miles and two-and-a-half is an extra four furlongs so I’m not sure you can say if you don’t get two-and-a-half you won’t stay two miles – I’m not sure it works like that,” pondered Varian.
“He should get two miles I think, but we don’t know, and maybe one-mile-six will be his limit. It will all play out as we feel our way with him. He’s in great form and he’s still got some big races ahead of him, we’re still looking forward to the future with him.
“He has an entry at Goodwood and I don’t think that would come too soon, but it would need me committing to two miles. That’s what I’m pondering at the moment.
“He’s a good horse though and you shouldn’t be losing faith in him.”
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