Setback from Goodwood forces Gstaad to miss Marois

Gstaad will miss a potential fourth clash with Bow Echo in the Prix Jacques le Marois at the weekend after picking up an infection following his narrow defeat in the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood.

Aidan O’Brien’s Irish 2,000 Guineas winner has come off second best against Bow Echo three times this season, filling the runner-up spot in the 2000 Guineas, the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot and in a Sussex Stakes for the ages a week and a half ago.

O’Brien insisted he would not shirk another clash with George Boughey’s superstar later this summer – but while the latter has the option of heading to Deauville, Gstaad is set to wait for the Prix du Moulin at ParisLongchamp on September 6 after suffering a minor setback.

When asked whether the Marois was a possibility at the Curragh on Sunday, O’Brien said: “I don’t think so. He got galloped into in Goodwood and he got a little bit of an infection in his hind part from it.

“We put him on antibiotics and with the antibiotics we put him on usually we’d be able to run him in seven days, but they had to give him an extra strong antibiotic because the cut was deep so it took 14 days, it wouldn’t be out of his system in time.

“It will probably be the Moulin now before he runs. That’s probably where he’ll go.”