Society Rock progress stalls

12:44, 24 Jun 2012

James Fanshawe plans to get some intensive stalls work into Society Rock after his frustrating performance in Saturday's Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot.

The six-year-old was defending his crown in the six-furlong Group One, but blew his chance of victory with a very slow start.

He still had a lot of ground to make up on the likes of Black Caviar and Moonlight Cloud with a couple of furlongs to run, but flew home in the hands of Johnny Murtagh to finish fifth, beaten just two lengths.

"It's obviously disappointing he missed the break, as he ran such a good race afterwards," said Fanshawe.

"He can be a bit slowly away and sometimes that helps him, but he sat down in the stalls and lost a lot of ground.

"He's run a very good race in the circumstances, but we need to try and get the stalls part right now.

"If we can get that sorted, then he's right up there with the best of them."

The Darley July Cup at Newmarket is Society Rock's most obvious next port of call, but Fanshawe is keen to sort out his stalls issues before committing his charge to run on July 14.

"He ran very well in the Duke of York Stakes on his first run of the year and again on Saturday, so he's obviously in really good form at the moment," said the Newmarket handler.

"I want to be really happy with the stalls situation before I run him again, but we'd obviously love to have a go at the July Cup."