July Cup now an option for Lifeplan Lifeplan could make his reappearance in the Al Basti Equiworld, Dubai July Cup after a setback forced him to miss Royal Ascot. The three-year-old won nicely on his debut as a juvenile before going on to land the Gimcrack at York to give connections high hopes ahead of this campaign. A tooth infection interrupted the opening half of his season, causing him to miss an intended run in the 2000 Guineas, before a dirty scope at the wrong time ruled him out of the big meeting last week. Now attention has been turned to the July Cup at Newmarket next month, with a possible tilt at the Sprint Cup at Haydock also high on the agenda. Frustrating Setbacks Clear for Newmarket Target Trainer Declan Carroll said: “He was meant to go to Ascot but it was aborted because he had a dirty scope so we couldn’t go down there when he wasn’t 100 per cent right. “We’ve had a few setbacks with him. At the beginning of the season he got an infection in a tooth that had to come out and it knocked him back quite a bit. We’ve had little setbacks but enough to hold us back from racing. “He’s in the July Cup and I would think Haydock will be on his radar. We don’t really know where we’d like to go, we were hoping Ascot but we’ll get him right first. And when he’s right then we’ll decided what we’re going to do.”
