GUTTED Richard Hannon says superstar Rosallion is OUT for the season.
The 48-year-old was forced to pull his Irish Guineas hero out of Goodwood’s Sussex Stakes last week with a respiratory infection.
And now Hannon has also ruled Rosallion – who was 7-2 fav for the Breeders’ Cup mile with some bookies – out of Plan B and a trip to France in the Prix du Moulin next month.
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With the ground likely to turn soft in the coming weeks Hannon looks like he will be forced to pull stumps on the campaign.
He said: “I’m pretty certain Paris will come too quickly for Rosallion. He looks great, but we are just giving him time to get over everything.
“There are targets for him in the winter, but by then you are getting into soft ground and as we know he is fast ground dependent.
“He has nothing to prove and he has been an amazing horse for us this season winning the Irish 2,000 Guineas and St James’s Palace Stakes.”
Hannon has only sent out two winners from his last 54 runners and was forced to take Shouldhavebeenaring out of the Prix Maurice de Gheest at Deauville on Sunday with the same ailment as Rosallion.
But Hannon has played down any talk of a bug sweeping the yard in recent weeks.
He added: “A few haven’t scoped well, but you get that every year at this time of the year.
“The horses generally ran well at big prices at Goodwood last week.
“Unfortunately it happened to be two good horses that had bad scopes and we don’t want to take any chances.
“It was a hard decision to make with Rosallion. He was odds-on for a million quid race, but it could turn out to be the best decision I’ll make.”
Despite enduring a quiet spell, Hannon has vowed to roll up his sleeves and come out fighting in search of securing Group 1 glory with Haatem in the Prix Jacques Le Marois on Sunday.
He said: “This will be a different challenge taking on the older horses, but it is the right time to do it.
“He is a very solid horse and he should have a very good chance in this.”
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