Al Asayl’s Balios will be aimed at the Group 2 Great Voltigeur Stakes at York racecourse a week from Tuesday in a bid to get his promising career back on track.
Balios came with a storming run to win the King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot in June, but struggled behind a slow pace when only fifth behind Erupt in the Grand Prix de Paris at Longchamp last month.
The Royal Ascot race was staged over 2,000 metres, but trainer David Simcock is keen to prove the three-year-old colt can stay the 2,400 metres of the Great Voltigeur.
The race is seen as a traditional stepping stone to the English St Leger, and was last used successfully by Godolphin’s Encke in 2012.
Due to his Royal Ascot victory, Balios will be burdened with a Group 2 penalty of 1.36kg.
“The French race was too messy; it certainly didn’t suit him,” Simcock said.
“He got struck into quite badly in France and I don’t think we saw him in his best light by any means.
“I’d say he has come out of the race probably better than he came out of Ascot. He is going on to carry on improving but it isn’t going to be easy with a three-pound penalty, though.”
Toast Of New York reportedly is back on course for a crack at the Dubai World Cup at Meydan in March.
The four-year-old colt, trained at Lambourn by Jamie Osborne, missed out on this year’s race due to a soft tissue injury.
He was last seen when edged out of the Breeders’ Cup Classic in November by Bayern, beating home subsequent World Cup runner-up California Chrome. “He’s in good form,” Harry Herbert, racing manager to owners Al Shaqab, said. “We won’t see him this year, but the World Cup next year is a definite target.”
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