David Ord on the challenges facing the middle-distance division

In the space of 20 minutes on Saturday morning the news came through that Betfred Oaks heroine Ezeliya had been retired following a setback and Stay Alert and Jayarebe were out of the Coral-Eclipse after rain eased the ground at Sandown.

The Epsom winner leaves a hole for the rest of the season given the way she went through that Classic success, looking a filly of real potential. Sadly, that won’t be fully realised on the racecourse now.

The two Esher absentees were probably booked for bit-part roles in the Group One contest but their absence reduced the field to six – and drew the spotlight on just how wafer-thin that middle-distance division is at the top level right now.

Sidelined stars at the moment include White Birch, ruled out of Royal Ascot and Sandown after blood tests taken before both didn’t come back as connections wanted or needed them to.

His Tattersalls Gold Cup defeat of Auguste Rodin marked him out as a potential big player in all the top races this term but the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes and Coral-Eclipse have passed him by, now the King George looms into view.

And my does it need him.

King Of Steel won’t be there. The QIPCO Champion Stakes hero suffered an injury in the spring which saw him leave Roger Varian for pastures new. The BHA site initially showed him to be with Dominic French Davies, then Raphael Freire at the same stable.

However it shows an end date of Friday July 5th for that stay. Clearly a return to the track doesn’t appear imminent for a colt who we thought was going to be one of our 2024 stars.

Economics, who looked like he might be a top-notcher himself in running away with the Al Basti Equiworld Dante, has sat out the big summer tests so far too.

He’s on the way back, William Haggas outlining two potential routes for him on the Nick Luck Daily Podcast this week, Sky Bet York Stakes and Juddmonte International or the Prix Guillaume d’Ornano at Deauville to lead into the Kingdom Of Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes.

We’re missing Passenger as well. He looked ready for a return to the top table when brushing subsequent Ascot hero Israr aside in the Huxley Stakes at Chester and there’s definitely a sense of unfinished business with the son of Ulysses.

He’s four now but you sense we haven’t seen his peak performance yet but he too missed the Royal Meeting, with a temperature, and connections are waiting on him to tell them when it’s green for go again.

Back to the three-year-olds and we’re eagerly-awaiting the return of Arabian Crown who laid down the first Derby marker by winning the Sandown Trial in April, form that to be fair hasn’t exactly been franked since, but missed Epsom and the rest of the season so far after suffering a setback.

Calandagan achieved a chunk more when running away with the King Edward VII but the son of Gleneagles is on a short break with connections in no rush to make a firm plan.

When they do that won’t include a crack at the King George at Ascot which is a shame, because that contest is looking like it might follow the Eclipse in struggling to hit a double-digit field.

Auguste Rodin currently tops the market off the back of his Prince Of Wales’s Stakes success and he looks set to bid to try and atone for last season’s blow-out in the very same race.

Hardwicke hero Isle Of Jura is one of the good-news stories of the season and is next in followed by three stablemates of the favourite, Luxembourg, City Of Troy (clearly won’t run) and Los Angeles.

Then there’s the aforementioned Passenger, Bluestocking, who is bound for the Nassau, Ambiente Friendly, expected to to drop in trip, and the race starts to thin out – numerically and in terms of established stars.

We have other O’Brien possibilities while the globetrotting Rebel's Romance set to have a dart at a big domestic prize, Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud winner Dubai Honour for William Haggas is in too. Irish Derby second Sunway is set to represent the Classic generation which is good news but however you look at it, the scramble for an eight-strong field for World Pool purposes already looks on.

In the Juddmonte International it’s a very similar cast. A race that needs Economics, Passenger or White Birch, preferably all three, to be there to lay it down to whatever star Ballydoyle point at North Yorkshire.

Because in the absence of that trio, the cupboard is looking worryingly bare.

Irish Derby winner Los Angeles could slip in somewhere, although the St Leger does look the obvious route for him, Curragh fourth Matsuri is low mileage and on the upgrade. There could be a big day for him somewhere.

But after a winter where small fields were a theme, and how they were a theme, the lack of high-class middle-distance horses to take on the might of Ballydoyle is starting to become a summer talking point.

Here’s hoping it’s not through the autumn as well.

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