Godolphin suffered a significant blow on Thursday morning after trainer Charlie Appleby revealed that Emotionless, the second-favourite for the colts' Classic a week on Saturday, would not run in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket.

The news has come at the start of what was intended to be an important season in Godolphin’s fight back to pre-eminence in the sport. Godolphin have struggled for success in the major races in recent years compared to their rivals the Coolomore operation, whose representative Air Force Blue is odds-on favourite for the Guineas, and Godolphin’s Newmarket trainers, Appleby and Saeed bin-Suroor, couldn’t muster a Group One race win between them in Britain or Europe in 2015.

While there is reportedly nothing physically wrong with last year’s impressive Champagne Stakes winner, Appleby feels the colt will benefit from being given more time.

Emotionless took part in a racecourse gallop at Newmarket last week which had been intended to put him spot on for the Classic but connections will now concentrate on the second half of the season.

“The horse has done nothing wrong in his work but I feel that he is still maturing and will be a better horse with more time,” Appleby stated on the Godolphin website.

“He is an incredibly exciting horse to train but he is a horse for the second half of the season and he has a real future as a four and five-year-old when he is fully developed,” added the trainer. “The decision not to run is a difficult one but it is in the best interests of the horse and that is all that matters.”

(Guardian service)