Racing: Wisp's trip cancelled

SILVER WISP, the Derby third, was given a medical clearance but ruled out of a continental appearance yesterday.

Geoff Lewis, the colt's trainer, reported that the horse had recovered from a throat infection which struck him after Epsom, but would not be ready in time to contest the Grand Prix de Saint- Cloud on Sunday. Silver Wisp will run instead in the Premier Stakes at Chepstow on Thursday week.

Lewis bypasses France because he does not want to subject his colt to a hard race over a distance he has yet to be convinced Silver Wisp truly stays. If the horse emerges as an animal unable to quite last home over 12 furlongs, the Epsom trainer would prefer the evidence to come in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot later this month.

'I don't know if we're certain to get the trip, so I want to find out in one race, the King George,' he said. 'If you've got a doubt in your mind, you've got it for a reason, so let's save it for the right day. I don't want to find out in France and flatten him for the rest of the season.'

Seattle Rhyme, the winter favourite for the Derby, may be on his travels though. David Elsworth has an unlikely race in mind for the colt's first outing as a three- year-old, the Topkapi Trophy. That's in Istanbul.