Owen Burrows has been dealt a merciless blow after Hukum required surgical procedure on an harm picked up throughout his Coronation Cup victory, with the chance his steady star may have run his final race.
Hukum is predicted to have the ability to return to motion later within the 12 months, however Burrows believes there’s a probability the Shadwell-owned five-year-old will now take up stallion duties.
It represents an enormous swing in fortunes for the Burrows steady, who went from the excessive of celebrating a primary Group 1 success at Epsom to the low of Hukum doubtlessly not racing once more.
The coach stated: “Sadly, he picked up an harm within the race and it wasn’t till we received again to the yard that he was lame. He needed to have surgical procedure on Saturday morning and had three screws put in a hind leg.
“It wouldn’t be career-ending, however there may be the prospect of him interesting as a stallion for most likely the jumps.
“It’s too early to say whether or not that can be him completed and it’s not as if he couldn’t run once more, it simply is dependent upon his restoration and what kind of curiosity there may be for him.”
Burrows had initially been left to contemplate extra lofty targets for Hukum, together with subsequent month’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot, after his dominant victory over final 12 months’s winner Pyledriver in Friday’s Coronation Cup.
Nonetheless, all plans have been positioned on maintain by Burrows and Shadwell’s racing supervisor Angus Gold till a call is made on Hukum’s future.
“He’s going to should box-rest for a couple of weeks and he actually wouldn’t be again till late autumn on the earliest, however that’s a best-case state of affairs it heals nicely,” stated Burrows.
“It’s not as if it’s him fully completed, all of it relies upon actually. I used to be chatting with Angus yesterday and we will’t make any selections now; we’ll see how he mends and go from there.”
Final 12 months, Burrows was pressured to relocate to new premises with a considerably decreased staff resulting from Shadwell’s cutbacks after the loss of life of Hamdan Al Maktoum.
Though not a personal coach for Shadwell, Burrows stored maintain of Hukum and took nice satisfaction within the six-time Group winner making his breakthrough on the highest stage.
“One minute I used to be floating dwelling from Epsom after which bang,” the coach stated. “I used to be 1 / 4 of an hour from getting again to the yard when my assistant rang me and it was a bit bit bittersweet.
“I’ve skilled quite a lot of feelings on this sport through the years, however that will most likely be up there. It’s gutting from a private and staff viewpoint, however I really feel very privileged to coach such a great horse and am so happy he was in a position to lastly present what we felt he was able to.”
Hukum, a year-older brother of Shadwell famous person Baaeed, has gained 9 of his 15 begins and earned prize-money of greater than £630,000.