Publish ruled out of 2000 Guineas

The potential line-up for the Betfred 2000 Guineas lost another big name on Friday after Juddmonte announced Publish will miss the first half of the season due to a setback.

The son of Kingman, who is trained by John and Thady Gosden, was a general 9-2 shot for the first colts’ Classic of the year and a mouthwatering rematch with his Haydock conqueror and Guineas favourite Bow Echo.

However, he will now miss the Newmarket showpiece having found to be lame on Thursday, with the length of time he will spend on the sidelines unknown until further veterinary assessments take place.

Juddmonte’s European racing manager Barry Mahon said: “We don’t fully know the timeline yet and we’ll have to wait until he has further scans next week.

“However, the first half of the season is gone – whether we can get him back for the second half or next year will be determined once we’ve found out more.”

The news of Publish’s absence comes just 24 hours after Andrew Balding’s Dewhurst winner and Guineas hopeful Gewan suffered a fatal injury in a racecourse gallop at Kempton.

“It’s very unfortunate but he’s alive and as we saw yesterday with the unfortunate news regarding the Dewhurst winner, it could be worse,” continued Mahon.

“You feel terrible for the owners and those connected to Gewan and thankfully our horse will live to fight another day, but it will rule him out of those early season targets.

“When you lose two out the top three in the betting for a Classic it is disappointing for the sport but hopefully there will be plenty of more young pretenders there and a good horse will emerge.”