Winter Derby on back-burner as Kublers eye $2 million Saudi prize with Cambridgeshire winner Astro King

Daniel Kubler has confirmed that stable star Astro King will run in Saudi Arabia next – and there are two million reasons why he will head there and not to Southwell this month.

Kubler and his wife Claire, who train in partnership in Lambourn, have done a super job with the ex-Sir Michael Stoute-trained gelding, who was second in the John Smith's Cup before winning a valuable York handicap and then capturing the Cambridgeshire.

He was last seen emerging with credit from his first run in a Group 2 in Bahrain in which he was sixth, and connections are now eyeing the Neom Turf Cup, which takes place at Riyadh on February 24.