Setback puts Friendly Soul plans on hold

Friendly Soul’s return to the track will be further delayed as a setback will keep the Group One winner on the sidelines until later in the season.

The daughter of Kingman was a shining light for John and Thady Gosden last season, winning four of her five starts and claiming top honours in the Prix de l’Opera at ParisLongchamp in October.

Both the Lockinge and Brigadier Gerard had been earmarked for the high-class four-year-old’s reappearance, while she held entries for both the Queen Anne and Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot.

However, Friendly Soul was removed from both contests at the most recent entry stage, with no set timescale for her comeback.

“She’s just had a setback and hopefully we will see her later on in the season,” explained Thady Gosden.

“We’ll have to wait and see and she is obviously an extremely high-class filly, so she will be given all the time she needs.

“Sadly her mother, In Clover, who was one of the greatest broodmares of recent times, passed away recently.

“She’s a very exciting for Mr (George) Strawbridge and a home-bred filly of course and hopefully she will be back later in the year.”

The four-year-old retains entries for the Coral-Eclipse and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe later in the season.