Spirit Dancer heading home after Riyadh run

Richard Fahey’s Spirit Dancer will be given time to recuperate from his Neom Turf Cup run before the rest of his campaign is mapped out.

The eight-year-old has thrived in the Middle East in recent seasons, winning back-to-back renewals of the Bahrain International Trophy and landing last season’s running of the Riyadh Group Two.

He was aimed at the latter race again this season, but could not reproduce the performance that saw him triumph last term and he came home in sixth place.

Last season the Sheema Classic was his next port of call after Saudi Arabia, but having come out of the Neom Turf Cup slightly sore, he will return home before any further plans are made.

“He just came back a little bit sore from the race, so we’ll have to see how he is,” said Fahey.

“He didn’t really finish his race, we thought he was going to pick up and run a big one but he just didn’t finish off as well as we would like.

“It’s a shame as he arrived there in great form, he’s due back on Thursday so we’ll get him home and have a look at him.

“Then we can make a decision about what to do with him. He’s fine, he’s not lame or anything, he just trotted up a bit pottery and you could tell he’d had a race.”