Gosden decides against Breeders’ Cup for Ombudsman

Ombudsman will not travel to Keeneland for the Breeders’ Cup Turf after all, John Gosden has announced.

Having impressed so much in winning the Champion Stakes at Ascot on Saturday, Gosden, who trains with his son Thady, confirmed that he was in line to step up to a mile and a half for the first time.

However, the master of Clarehaven has now decided that the race will come too soon, but he has raised the possibility of a crack at the Japan Cup.

Gosden told the Press Association: “It’s very simple, the horse ran four days ago at Ascot and he would have to work tomorrow, get on a plane for a cross-Atlantic flight, quarantine and it’s not fair to ask him to do that then ask him to run back within 14 days with a long journey in the middle.

“In fairness, we felt having discussed it with everyone, we shouldn’t be trying to do that with him after he ran such a brilliant race in the Champion Stakes and we could consider the Japan Cup now.

“There’s plenty of time to that now in November, but to rush him over to America and put him through that we didn’t think was in the best interests of the horse.”

He went on: “Japan would be a tentative plan and no more than that. It’s the only other race this year he could really run in and an important international race, so to that extent it’s a tentative plan.

“After that we’re probably talking retirement and it would have been nice to go to America, we wanted to go and do it because we like the Breeders’ Cup a lot, but the horse has to come first.”