Qatar plan for Durand Connections of Durand have to reassess short-term plans for the gelding after he missed an intended engagement at Epsom on Monday. The Qatar Derby in December is the main objective for the three-year-old, who was bought out of John Murphy's County Cork stables for 260,000 guineas in July. However, his new trainer Conrad Allen has been looking at possible races for the lightly-raced son of Motivator on these shores before then. "I need to discuss it with the owners. I planned to run him on Monday at Epsom but they had 27 millimetres of rain on Sunday," said Newmarket-based Allen. "I was a bit worried and may have been over cautious, but I was concerned about the ground and the Epsom factor, so I thought that was enough to persuade me not to run there. "The plan originally was he was going to go straight to Qatar for the Qatar Derby, but the owners have been discussing that we may run him here which is why I made that entry. "He's in the Cambridgeshire, but he needs to run before September 5 to qualify for that. I'll need to discuss it with the owners where they want me to take him. "I want to run him in the Qatar Derby in December as a fit horse, but whether we run him over here or not first is dependant on what the owners want."
