Haatem returns home after dramatically missing big Group 1 in France with last-minute mystery injury

4 months ago 40

POPULAR three-year-old Haatem appears to have avoided serious injury after his last-gasp withdrawal before a big Group 1 in France.

Richard Hannon’s star was one of the leading fancies for the Prix Jacques le Marois at Deauville on Sunday but was dramatically scratched from the race while he was on his way to the start.

a group of horses with jockeys on them are racing on a track

Haatem (left) won at Royal Ascot when last seen in June[/caption]

Jockey James Doyle felt like something was amiss when jumping on the colt’s back ahead of the one million euro race – and he was immediately checked over by vets.

Out of an abundance of caution they decided to pull him out of the race, which was eventually won easily by Roger Varian’s Charyn.

The Wathnan Racing-owned horse was later X-rayed and vets conducted several tests, but nothing came to light.

Wathnan’s racing manager Richard Brown said: “We aren’t 100 per cent sure what happened in truth.

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“He took a few odd steps and James jumped off immediately saying something didn’t feel quite right.

“He was thoroughly checked over and we didn’t want to take any chances whatsoever, so we took him out and had him X-rayed.

“The X-rays all came back clean, we think he must have whacked his joint on the way out and stung himself, a bit like a dead leg, he appeared to be a little bit sore.

“We managed to get him on a horsebox at 1am this morning so he will be back home at Richard’s soon, so we will just have to see how he is over the next few days.

“It’s incredibly frustrating, he looked a million dollars and the Jacques le Marois had been the plan for a long time.”

Haatem has been one of the stars of the season, finishing placed in both the English and Irish Guineas earlier in the year before winning the Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot last time out.

His last-gasp scratching is the second huge blow to Hannon in the space of two weeks after his Classic winner Rosallion was pulled out of the Sussex Stakes at Glorious Goodwood with a minor respiratory infection.

Brown added: “It’s very tough on Richard, what with Rosallion having to miss Goodwood the other day. This game tames lions.

“We haven’t even had discussions about where we could go next with Haatem, we’ll just see how he is first and go from there.”