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Derby hero Workforce will have to show connections he is back in peak condition before they allow him to return to the racecourse.

The King’s Best colt looked destined for greatness following his seven-length Epsom triumph but he was well beaten in fifth as stablemate Harbinger ran away with the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot.

Nothing significant has come to light following that lifeless display and connections will give him all the time he needs to find his feet once again.

Teddy Grimthorpe, racing manager to owner Khalid Abdullah, told At The Races: “There is no question he was a very impressive winner of the Derby. He won by seven lengths and you can never take that away from him. It was an outstanding performance which ever way you look at it.

“We’re pretty sure he didn’t give his true running at Ascot. He has been checked out thoroughly with a fine tooth comb and nothing significant has been revealed, so we are just going to have to let him tell us when he’s ready to go back to the races.

“We’re not going to put a programme on him, and realistically the one remaining race for him in Europe is the Arc. But we want to know he is back on song and giving everyone the vibes we’re looking for.

“We want to be convinced he’s going to do himself justice. All the signs were that he would at Ascot, but he didn’t. Perhaps he just needed a bit more time and perhaps he had a much harder race at Epsom than we thought.

“People need to remember that Ascot was only his fourth race. He’s a big, scopey horse and he may just need a bit more time to strengthen up.”

Not many Derby winners stay in training beyond their Classic campaign, but Grimthorpe is not ruling out the possibility of Workforce running as four-year-old.

He went on: “If he improves as much as Harbinger did between three and four, then we’re going to have something quite special. It’s certainly a possibility that he could stay in training, but we haven’t really got there yet. That will be Prince Khalid’s decision.”

Mawatheeq has been ruled out of the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes on Saturday.

The five-year-old has endured an interrupted campaign having been forced to miss the Dubai World Cup through injury and he was well beaten on his sole appearance of 2010 in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot.

He was withdrawn at the start of the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown after failing to enter the stalls and trainer Marcus Tregoning does not feel his charge is ready to compete in Ascot’s Betfair-sponsored summer showpiece.

“We were going to work him somewhere this weekend but we decided against it and that means he will miss the King George,” said Tregoning.

“We’ve just decided to give him a bit more time as we don’t feel he’s going to be ready for Ascot.

“We haven’t decided where we’re going with him yet but we just feel he wants a bit more time after the injury problem he had in the spring.”

Aidan O’Brien bids for a fifth consecutive Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby and an eighth in all when he saddles a five-strong team headed by Cape Blanco at the Curragh today.

Stable jockey Johnny Murtagh has chosen to ride the French Derby flop instead of Epsom Derby fourth Jan Vermeer, who will be the mount of Seamus Heffernan.

“The French race was a bit messy, but we’re not really sure what happened that day,” said O’Brien.

“It wasn’t his running and he just wasn’t the horse he was at York (where he beat subsequent Epsom hero Workforce in the Dante). Maybe he just had an off-day, which every horse is entitled to have.

“He hasn’t really done a lot of work as he doesn’t take a lot of work, but everything he’s done we’ve been happy with.”

On Jan Vermeer, the Ballydoyle handler added: “He ran well at Epsom, but with the benefit of hindsight we might have been better going to France for an easier mile and a quarter rather than the gruelling mile and a half.

“He probably didn’t get enough time between his first run at the Curragh and Epsom to make the progress fitness-wise that we would have liked.

“But he seems to have been in good form since and we’ve had a little bit more time between Epsom and the Curragh than we did between the Curragh and Epsom the first time.”

O’Brien also runs Derby second At First Sight (Joseph O’Brien) and fifth home Midas Touch (Colm O’Donoghue), as well as Bright Horizon (Sean Levey).

Richard Hannon dominated the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot as Canford Cliffs oozed class to get the better of his stablemate Dick Turpin.

The winner was settled some way off the pace by a confident Richard Hughes, who held on to the 11-4 joint-favourite for as long as possible as Steinbeck led into the turn.

Dick Turpin went for home, but Canford Cliffs quickened up impressively to go past and win by a length, with Pat Eddery’s Hearts Of Fire running a massive race in third.

Hughes said: “The most important thing I had to do was to get my horse to settle very early in the race, slip the bridle out and ride him a race.

“I said all week I knew I was on the best horse, but I just needed a bit of luck in running.

“I could afford to give them five lengths riding on a horse like Canford Cliffs, but I could feel a shoe go turning for home and that was a bit of a worry.

“He just might have hit a flat spot and I soon got him going again and he’s beaten a very good horse in Dick Turpin too.

“Being on him is like getting into a Rolls Royce instead of a Morris Minor. The difference is unbelievable. You just sit on him and everything is smooth and is electric. He has so much speed and that’s his forte.”

Hannon added: “He’s got better and better and he only had to settle in his races. He has got to go for Group Ones, so I suppose the Sussex Stakes and the Jacques le Marois would be possibilities.”

Makfi, winner of the 2000 Guineas, was only seventh of the nine and his jockey Olivier Peslier reported: “He was running a good race until turning into the straight. I tried to go on the outside but there was no power – he found nothing.”

Sir Michael Stoute is refusing to rush into making a plan for record-breaking Derby winner Workforce.

On only his third start, the King’s Best colt broke Lammtarra’s 15-year-old track record for the Classic on a sweltering day at Epsom.

The Irish Derby at the Curragh and the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot are the likely options for his next start, but five-time Derby winning handler Stoute says no decision will be made until next week at the earliest.

“It was a great day, a great thrill and the team thoroughly enjoyed it,” said Stoute.

“I was a little bit concerned about his lack of experience after his preparatory race didn’t go according to plan, but he’d pleased us subsequently and we thought he would run very well but I didn’t expect a performance of that magnitude.

“Ryan (Moore) came in after York and said ‘don’t be disappointed’ because the bit went right through his mouth and he couldn’t give him the assistance that he needed.

“I suppose on the face of it it was a better Derby performance than Sea The Stars, but it doesn’t make him a better horse and Sea The Stars actually won the Derby very comfortably.

“All my Derby winners stand out, it’s a wonderful race and it’s a wonderful day and it’s great to win it.

“We’ve decided to not even consider the next move until well into next week, we’ll monitor him and try to determine how he has recovered from his race so plans are on hold.

“It’s so far so good but it is early days,” he told At The Races.