Owen Burrows has revealed Hukum will not be going for the Investec Derby after suffering a minor injury.
The Sea The Stars colt impressed at Royal Ascot last week on just his third start, and forced himself into the Derby reckoning after winning the King George V Handicap.
Hukum held off the challenge of Kipps to land the spoils but suffered a minor setback in doing so, and will now need some time out to fully recover.
That means no Classic bid for the three-year-old with Burrows considering the Gordon Stakes or the Great Voltigeur going forward.
“Touch wood he’s fine, but obviously he hasn’t done a lot since,” Burrows said.
“He’s not too sore on it. It was deep enough and without tempting fate it didn’t touch the tendon sheath. It could have been nasty, it was nasty enough, but we’ll have to be patient and keep it clean before we get the stitches out.
“As it was we weren’t thinking of the Derby really. I spoke to Sheikh Hamdan shortly after the race and when I mentioned it was just over two weeks he said it would be too soon, so we won’t be in a rush now.
“If it had been the end of July we might have been thinking about it, but coming so soon it is totally off the list, which might be the right thing anyway being so inexperienced, although he handled the hurly burly on Wednesday fine.
“I thought in the last half a furlong he was going away again, so we’ve no stamina worries. I think we’ll be looking at the Gordon Stakes and the Great Voltigeur, races like that.”
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