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Owen Burrows has been dealt a merciless blow after Hukum required surgical procedure on an damage picked up throughout his Coronation Cup victory, with the chance his secure star may have run his final race.
Hukum is predicted to have the ability to return to motion later within the 12 months, however Burrows believes there’s a likelihood the Shadwell-owned five-year-old will now take up stallion duties.
It represents an enormous swing in fortunes for the Burrows secure, who went from the excessive of celebrating a primary Group 1 success at Epsom to the low of Hukum doubtlessly not racing once more.
The coach mentioned: “Sadly, he picked up an damage within the race and it wasn’t till we acquired again to the yard that he was lame. He needed to have surgical procedure on Saturday morning and had three screws put in a hind leg.
“It wouldn’t be career-ending, however there’s the prospect of him interesting as a stallion for in all probability the jumps.
“It’s too early to say whether or not that can be him completed and it’s not as if he couldn’t run once more, it simply is dependent upon his restoration and what kind of curiosity there’s for him.”
Burrows had initially been left to contemplate extra lofty targets for Hukum, together with subsequent month’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot, after his dominant victory over final 12 months’s winner Pyledriver in Friday’s Coronation Cup.
Nonetheless, all plans have been positioned on maintain by Burrows and Shadwell’s racing supervisor Angus Gold till a call is made on Hukum’s future.
“He’s going to need to box-rest for a couple of weeks and he actually wouldn’t be again till late autumn on the earliest, however that’s a best-case state of affairs it heals properly,” mentioned Burrows.
“It’s not as if it’s him utterly completed, all of it relies upon actually. I used to be chatting with Angus yesterday and we will’t make any choices now; we’ll see how he mends and go from there.”
Final 12 months, Burrows was compelled to relocate to new premises with a considerably decreased staff attributable to Shadwell’s cutbacks after the dying of Hamdan Al Maktoum.
Though now not a personal coach for Shadwell, Burrows stored maintain of Hukum and took nice satisfaction within the six-time Group winner making his breakthrough on the highest degree.
“One minute I used to be floating house from Epsom after which bang,” the coach mentioned. “I used to be 1 / 4 of an hour from getting again to the yard when my assistant rang me and it was a bit of bit bittersweet.
“I’ve skilled quite a lot of feelings on this recreation over time, however that may in all probability be up there. It’s gutting from a private and staff viewpoint, however I really feel very privileged to coach such a superb horse and am so happy he was capable of lastly present what we felt he was able to.”
Hukum, a year-older brother of Shadwell celebrity Baaeed, has received 9 of his 15 begins and earned prize-money of greater than £630,000.
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