Silence ruled out of Derby

Celtic Silence, Godolphin`s main hope for the Vodafone Derby, is set to miss the Epsom Classic after suffering an injury on Monday, it was revealed today.

The son of Celtic Swing finished second to Dilshaan in the Dante Stakes at York last time out to earn a 16-1 quote from Ladbrokes for the blue riband.

But his trainer Saeed bin Suroor said: 'He worked yesterday but we found him lame after the work and the horse is going to miss the Derby.

'It is a big disappointment. He was our best chance.

'He has a problem with his front left leg but we won`t know the extent of the problem until tonight or tomorrow.

'There is still Tobougg, Wareed and Equerry in the Derby but we need to know more about them before we decide which of them are going to run at Epsom.

'Musha Merr is going to run in the French Derby.'

Celtic Silence had been the intended mount of Frankie Dettori, who said: 'He was obviously my first choice so we will have to go for `Plan B` now.

'We will work the horses this weekend and basically I will have to make a decision this weekend or early next week.

'I will still have four horses Equerry, Wareed, Tobougg and Musha Merr, who is most likely going to go to France, so any of those (other) three are possible, we will have to see what happens this weekend.

'Celtic Silence was my number one choice because he ran a very good trial so we will have to see what we can do with the rest now.'