Eldar Eldarov (GB) is said to be “making progress” having had an operation to stabilise a fracture in his neck, sustained during an incident in the stalls at the start of the G2 Dubai Gold Cup on Saturday which caused him to be withdrawn.
However, a return to racing has all but been ruled out for the son of Dubawi (Ire), who memorably won the G1 St Leger at Doncaster in 2022, before doubling his top-level tally with victory in last year's Irish equivalent, among his 10 starts for Roger Varian.
“He had an operation on Tuesday to stabilise a fracture,” said Chris Wall, racing manager for owner Shaikh Khalid bin Khalifa's KHK Racing. “Initially, when he was in that post-operative phase he had a rough time of things, but he's making progress now. It will be small steps, he's got a long way to go, but the future is looking brighter than it did 48 hours ago.
“He's in good hands in the equine hospital in Dubai, they've done a very good job so far. We flew in two vets from America who said they thought they'd be able to do something for him and they have. We are thankful and grateful to them, and to Shaikh Khalid for insisting that we left no stone unturned to try to give the horse a future.
“He still has quite a long way to go. He's by no means in the clear yet, but the progress report this morning [Wednesday] was positive and he's moving in the right direction.”
As for what the future might hold for the five-year-old Eldar Eldarov, Wall added, “I think we can safely say he won't be returning to racing, it's now a question of whether he can do a stud job or whether he just has a happy retirement somewhere. We'll have to see. That all depends on how his recovery goes and it's a bit early to say for certain.”
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
