Golden clash is Postponed

UNBEATEN Golden Horn heads to the International Stakes at York on August 19 but a clash on the Knavesmire with Postponed, the colt who won Saturday’s King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes in his absence, has been ruled out. Postponed’s trainer Luca Cumani confirmed yesterday that the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe is his long-term target. The Newmarket trainer said: ‘We will stay at a mile and a half but what route we take to the Arc we have not had a chance to think about. ‘I don’t think we have seen the best of Postponed yet but it is coming all the time.’ The Arc is the plan for John Gosden’s King George runner-up Eagle Top and is also where his Derby and Eclipse winner Golden Horn might end his season. First, lying in wait at York, could be Dermot Weld’s Prince of Wales’s Stakes winner Free Eagle, Eclipse Stakes runner-up The Grey Gatsby as well as French Derby winner New Bay. While deflating for the Ascot crowd, Gosden was adamant withdrawing Golden Horn on Saturday because of the going was the right call. He said: ‘This is a very talented horse with a mass of natural speed. ‘He goes on good to soft but holding ground over a mile and a half is not fair to him. ‘It was a close decision but you have to do what is right by the horse race by race.’ ÷ FRANKIE DETTORI landed the Group Two Prix Robert Papin at Maisons-Laffitte yesterday with a well-timed front-running ride on 10-1 shot Gutaifan. It was a second successive win for Richard Hannon after last year’s success in the Parisian suburb with Kool Kompany.