Mark Johnston sends Royal Rebel to Leopardstown tomorrow evening for the Savel Beg Stakes and the Middleham trainer is hoping the four-year-old shows some of his old sparkle with the blinkers back on.
Royal Rebel reappeared without the headgear in the Sagaro Stakes at Ascot last month and finished tailed off behind Orchestra Stall.
'He wasn`t travelling after two furlongs that day,' said Johnston. 'We`ve got to hope it was because he wasn`t wearing blinkers.
'He`s a very, very lazy, laid-back horse at home and on the racecourse so we had him gelded in the hope it made him concentrate but so far it doesn`t seem to have made any difference.
'He`s a very hard horse to assess.'
Royal Rebel has just four rivals in the Listed contest including Enzeli, who won the race 12 months ago before going on to land the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot.
