Shaquille’s participation in Qipco British Champions Day at Ascot may depend on how he gets through a gallop on the racecourse next week.
Julie Camacho’s Commonwealth and July Cup winner did not run a single race when she was last seen in the Sprint Cup at Haydock, a feat that still has connections scratching their heads.
After missing the break badly in both of his Group 1 wins, he broke on Merseyside terms but was defeated at half-time.
Nothing has come to light since, but should he continue to please at the gallop, October 21 will likely have a ring around him on the calendar.
“He’s doing well, we’re taking it one step at a time,” said Steve Brown, Camacho’s husband and assistant. “He worked on Saturday and we were happy with him, he will work again this week and the following week we will go away and gallop on a racecourse somewhere.
“Nothing has been decided yet, that will be to take him to a different environment and see how he copes and get him back on a racetrack, get the blood flowing a bit and then we’ll take it from there to see.”
Reflecting on Haydock, Brown added: “It’s disappointing that we haven’t found an absolute reason why he was so under-par at Haydock, but as I always say, sometimes you just don’t have an answer. We’d like to think that it does. , but sometimes we just don’t do that.
“I’m kind of of the opinion that unfortunately it was too bad to be true. Even though we were all devastated that day, all we can do is regroup and look ahead.”
Shaquille is one of 23 remaining fighters for the British Champions Sprint, for which last year’s winner Kinross is ante-post favorite after his near-miss in France on Sunday.
In the Champion Stakes, the progressive Horizon Dore leads the market, with Coral with Bay Bridge, King Of Steel and Mostahdaf among the 16 contenders.
Paddington and Tahiyra are front runners at 18th in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes with Free Wind, Time Lock and Via Sistina among the 26 possible candidates in the Fillies & Mares.
Trueshan, Kyprios, Courage Mon Ami and Coltrane are all still in the 17 in the Long Distance Cup.