International chit chat

[NoChanceToDance]

Rested Reverence out of
Prix de l'Abbaye

by Jon Lees
.

REVERENCE, whose sprint campaign this year has been blighted by setbacks, will miss Sunday's Prix de l'Abbaye at Longchamp after connections decided not to run him again this year.

Last year's Nunthorpe and Betfred Sprint Cup is free of injury but owner Gary Middlebrook and trainer Eric Alston agreed at the weekend to give the gelding the rest of the season off and start afresh next year.

Reverence was beaten a neck by Desert Lord at Longchamp last year and would have appreciated the likely yielding conditions in Paris, but after three starts this term, the latest in the Nunthorpe Stakes in which he burst a blood vessel, his next race will be in 2008.

Alston said on Monday: “We've decided to leave the Abbaye and start again next year. There's nothing wrong with him. He's certainly been working well and the ground there would have suited but with him bleeding last time we thought it best to wait.
“He will go back to Gary's for a couple of months and then come to me before Christmas. Everything went to pot from the start this year with him getting an injury early on but hopefully he will come back stronger than ever.”

Reverence did not get back onto the racecourse until July and finished last at York in which the two-year-old Kingsgate Native beat Desert Lord, Dandy Man and Red Clubs, who could all feature in the 5f Abbaye.

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I know you like him, mmsc...... but i really am glad he won't race again this year. I hope he has a good long winter break and comes back next Spring better than ever.