Racing: Godolphin's favourite for Guineas is hit by injury

There are very few occasions when it is bad to be a big bookmaker, perhaps only when Italians ride seven winners on the trot or the ultimate day when the call comes to go and stoke the furnaces. Yesterday, though, was even sweeter than normal for the horned ones.

It does not get much better than the ante-post favourite for a Classic being invalided out of the sport. That is the fate which has befallen David Loder's Almushahar, "famous" in Arabic and now knackered in the vernacular after hurting himself on the Newmarket gallops.

The son of Silver Hawk and Sayyedati, herself a five-time Group One winner for Clive Brittain, had been as low as 8-1 for next spring's 2,000 Guineas, a figure which may well have contracted after his scheduled run in the Dewhurst Stakes.

However, a plain statement from the colt's Godolphin team yesterday said: "Almushahar will miss the Group One Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket on 19 October due to a training setback."

Almushahar will now be transported to Dubai next month with the rest of his Godolphin brethren and attempt a recuperation at Sheikh Mohammed's Al Quoz facility. If the juvenile can be repaired for action at the highest level then he is certainly in the right location. Back in the spring of 1995, Lammtarra virtually died from illness in the Emirates, but, just several weeks later, he was healthy enough to win the Derby on his seasonal debut.

The bookmakers have pushed out Almushahar to the sort of price which will appear generous to anyone who has witnessed either of the colt's two runs to date. There will be takers and thus the pointed tails will have taken money twice for a horse who may well yet turn out to be debilitatingly damaged.

Almushahar's hooves of fire were no secret before he made his racecourse debut at his local course a month ago. He demolished a field of 16 maidens, winning by a length and a half and two and a half lengths from Maghanim and Trade Fair, who themselves now assume Guineas favouritism by default. Maghanim, who is also owned by Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum, won at the St Leger meeting, while Trade Fair bolted in by six lengths at Newbury on Saturday.

Almushahar himself followed up in the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster, which in itself was not special form as the runner-up, Neville Callaghan's St Pancras, had been beaten further in the Solario Stakes. However, in the aftermath of that triumph Loder compared his two-year-old with the greatest name to have borne the Royal blue. If Almushahar was owned by Sheikh Mohammed, it is almost certain that by now he would be called something like Dubai Pegasus.

"He has always been very special at home and you look forward to work mornings when he is due out," Loder said. "I have nothing at home that can go with him. I think he looks as good as Dubai Millennium did at this stage of his career."

Frankie Dettori added: "He's a wonderful horse and it will take a real good one to beat him. He's got the scope to be a beautiful three-year-old." Now he also has the scope to be a bookies' benefit.

2003 2,000 GUINEAS: Coral: 12-1 Almushahar, Maghanim, Trade Fair, 14-1 Muqbil, Statue Of Liberty, 16-1 Elusive City, Refuse To Bend, Van Nistelrooy, 20-1 Dublin, Hold That Tiger, 25-1 Snipewalk, 33-1 Country Reel, Ontario, The Great Gatsby, Western Diplomat, Zafeen; William Hill: 8-1 Almushahar, Trade Fair, 14-1 Muqbil, Statue Of Liberty, 16-1 Elusive City, Maghanim, Refuse To Bend, Van Nistelrooy.

Spencer faces stewards

Jamie Spencer will meet the Jockey Club's disciplinary committee this morning after being referred to Portman Square under the totting-up procedure. He can expect a lengthy ban.

The local stewards found Spencer guilty of using his whip with excessive force and from above shoulder height when driving Boreas to victory in the Doncaster Cup this month. As the jockey, who rode his 75th winner this season on Deeper In Debt at Goodwood yesterday, had been suspended for 15 days for misuse of the whip within the last year, his case was sent to the Jockey Club.

* Rebecca Davies, a stable girl, was killed in an accident while riding work at James Given's Lincolnshire yard on Tuesday. The 18-year-old was thrown from her horse and dragged for more than a quarter of a mile. She suffered fatal head injuries.

* Horse Racing Ireland has put forward a rescue package for cash-strapped Punchestown racecourse in an effort to avoid closure of the track. Brian Kavanagh, chief executive of HRI, said: "The financial position of Punchestown is critical, not least following the loss of the festival meeting in 2001, a year after a major development plan."