Nayef Leger bid ruled out

Connections of Nayef have decided against running the colt in the Rothmans Royals St Leger at Doncaster, it emerged today.

Nayef was not entered in the St Leger and owner Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum would have had to pay out Stg£20,000 to add the horse to the line-up for the season`s final Classic at next Saturday`s supplementary stage.

The Marcus Tregoning-trained half-brother to dual-Classic winner Nashwan had been winter favourite for the Sagitta 2000 Guineas and Vodafone Derby but following a disappointing spring campaign Nayef was given a three-month break to allow him time to strengthen.

Nayef returned with a good third in the Gordon Stakes at Goodwood before running out the impressive winner of a Group Three contest at Haydock Park last month to earn a quote of 8-1 from Ladbrokes for the St Leger, where he would have been tackling a mile and three-quarters for the first time.

Explaining the decision Tregoning said: 'Having had discussions with Sheikh Hamdan we decided not to run him in the St Leger. The horse is making great progress now and we don`t want to run him out of his distance when he`s doing so well at the moment.

'You can`t possibly tell until you try a mile and six and I don`t want to take anything away from the St Leger because one day there`s nothing I`d like more than to win that race.

'He`s on an upward curve and we didn`t want to risk him at a distance which might be beyond him and there are other races to consider this year.

'I think the plan is to keep him to Group Twos and Threes.

Tregoning believes Nayef will make up into a good four-year-old.

He added: 'We are looking forward to next year with him so it`s no good flattening him now.'