George Boughey will take his time with Classic-winning filly Cachet, after she proved slow to come to hand this spring.
The daughter of Aclaim gave the Newmarket handler a breakthrough top-level success when landing the Qipco 1000 Guineas last year, but has not been since since finishing fifth to Inspiral in the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot.
The Highclere-owned four-year-old will be a hot commodity as a broodmare, and Boughey says she is not ready for a return and will hold her back.
He said: “Cachet looks better than she has all spring. It wasn’t fair to take her straight to Royal Ascot a year off the track, running six furlongs for the first time.
“And I also didn’t think it was fair to run her in a Group Two over a mile, not having been a convincing stayer on the stiff track.
“I haven’t really got a plan at the moment. She’s training away nicely, but at the end of the day, her main target is a mares’ sale at the end of the year.
“She wasn’t right to go to a sale at the end of last year and we will try to have her as busy as she can be into December, but I’m not going to rush her – she’s a very valuable filly and doesn’t really need to prove anything else.”
Narrowly beaten in the French Guineas after her Newmarket effort, the Saffron House handler has not ruled out the possibility she will run again this year before retiring, with all the top mile races under consideration.
Boughey added: “There are lots of races for her, Forets, Sun Chariots, Breeders’ Cups. She might be a fresh horse against horses who have had a busy year.
“I’m very positive we will see her on the track in the next period of time, but I’m not sure when that will be, though.
“She is not quite there yet, but she has worked quite nicely. She has done a couple of bits, but she’s not sparkled yet and we know what she can do, so we’ve given her plenty of time.
“I don’t know why she hasn’t (sparkled). It has been very warm and now she is starting to thrive, but it has been a pretty hard spring for them and she just hasn’t for some reason.
“Emily Upjohn didn’t thrive through the spring and is now flying and a star again. Inspiral didn’t. There are a few of those good fillies that haven’t and it’s been easier for the colts than the fillies.”