Aidan O'Brien will today attempt to work out the sudden loss of form of HawkWing after his star four-year-old performed miserably in Royal Ascot's Queen AnnStakes.
The newly-elevated Group One event was dominated by Dubai Destination who, atlast, confirmed the promise of his juvenile year with a four lengths trouncingof Tillerman but it was the poor performance of odds-on favourite Hawk Wingwhich concerned the Ballydoyle maestro.
O'Brien was at a loss to understand the performance of the Woodman colt,especially after a positive 11 lengths victory in Newbury's Lockinge Stakes onhis seasonal debut.
"He couldn't do what he did that day," he said. "He didn't run withinstones of his form today."
The racecourse vet later produced the possible reason for Hawk Wing's downfallwhen he revealed the four-year-old had finished lame in front at the end of themile and a half event.
This was after O'Brien had said: "He had a lot of problems at the end of lastseason and maybe we didn't sort them all out. If we'd gone through him morestrenuously at home we probably would have said something was wrong and hewouldn't have been here.
"He seemed fine but he's run no race. However, I haven't lost faith in him.
"We'll take him home, give him a break and see what we can do to sort himout. Mick (Kinane) didn't say much, he just shook his head."