WOOTTON BASSETT has been pulled out of the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket.

Malton trainer Richard Fahey has admitted he can’t get his unbeaten colt ready in time for the season’s first Classic, held at headquarters on April 30.

The Musley Bank handler had revealed last week how the five-time winner Wootton Bassett had only a 50-50 chance of appearing – after missing three weeks of work at the start of the year.

Fahey has now abandoned his Newmarket plans and will look to target his stable star at either the Irish 2000 Guineas at the Curragh, or the French version at Longchamp.

Wootton Bassett hit the headlines with two victories in big money sales races at York and Doncaster last summer before handing Fahey and jockey Paul Hanagan their first Group 1 victories when taking the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at Longchamp in October.

His withdrawal will rob racing enthusiasts of the chance to see him take on Henry Cecil’s unbeaten Frankel, who preserved his record with a straightforward win in last Saturday’s Greenham Stakes at Newbury.

Fahey said: “We’ve run out of time. He’s not going to run at Newmarket, not because there’s anything wrong with him, but basically because he’s not ready.

“To be fair to the horse and to everyone, he’s got to be 100 per cent to go and run in a Classic, and I don’t feel he is at the moment. Missing that work at the turn of the year was always going to make things tight, and we’re not there with him yet.

“He’s in the Irish and the French 2,000 Guineas next month. We’ll keep both those options open and, hopefully, he’ll be able to go for one of them.”