Racing: Jovite out of Breeders' Cup

ST JOVITE, winner of this season's Irish Derby and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, will miss the Breeders' Cup meeting in Florida tomorrow week and has run his last race in Europe.

Jim Bolger, St Jovite's trainer, said yesterday: 'He has an upper respiratory tract infection. He will be all right in a week or two but won't be ready in time for the Breeders' Cup.'

St Jovite finished second to Dr Devious in the Derby at Epsom in June, before emphatically reversing the form in the Irish equivalent at The Curragh. His 12- length beating of Dr Devious in a course record time was followed by an equally impressive performance in the King George, but he then lost out once more to Dr Devious in a desperate finish to the Irish Champion Stakes. Unsuited by soft ground in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, he could finish only fourth to Subotica.

Racegoers in the United States will get a chance to see the colt next year. 'The horse is going to America to race as a four-year-old and will eventually stand at stud there,' Bolger said.

Future plans for St Jovite's old adversary, Dr Devious, also became clearer yesterday. The Derby winner has been sold to Japanese owner Zenya Yoshida and will now contest the Japan Cup next month as well as the Breeders' Cup Turf.

The National Stud had hoped to keep Dr Devious in Britain and offered dollars 6m for the colt last month, but its efforts were undermined by the recent devaluation of the pound against the dollar.