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| Sumita Pawar |
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After finishing fifth in defense of his King George crown at Ascot on Saturday, Pyledriver still has the Juddmonte International and the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe on his agenda.
Pyledriver's Bittersweet Return: A Tale Of Triumph And Setbacks
After a successful comeback in the Hardwicke Stakes at the Royal meeting in June, where he had been sidelined for 11 months, hopes were high for William Muir and Chris Grassick's stable star to win again in the track's midsummer highlight.
However, Pyledriver fell short and finished fifth, almost nine lengths behind the winner Hukum, who defeated Westover in an exciting finish. Despite this outcome, Muir remains optimistic.
“It was a great race and I’m not going to change my opinion, he’s going to go for the same races we had targeted for him before Saturday,” he said.
“Don’t take anything away from the winner and the second because they ran great races. PJ (McDonald, jockey) said if he had a perfect run he could have been a little bit closer, but that was all.
“I said before the race the worst thing that can happen is we get beat and we’ll go on and go forwards.