The clash of the world's top two sprinters in Tokyo next month is off after Sacred Kingdom was ruled out of the Group One Sprinters Stakes yesterday with a foot problem, reports the HK Racing Post.The gelding was scheduled to leave for Tokyo next Friday, and track watchers were surprised when the Ricky Yiu Poon-fai-trained gelding failed to turn up for a vital barrier trial in the morning. Yiu later confirmed all was not well with the six-year-old."He was shod on Monday and had not been com

The clash of the world's top two sprinters in Tokyo next month is off after Sacred Kingdom was ruled out of the Group One Sprinters Stakes yesterday with a foot problem, reports the HK Racing Post.

The gelding was scheduled to leave for Tokyo next Friday, and track watchers were surprised when the Ricky Yiu Poon-fai-trained gelding failed to turn up for a vital barrier trial in the morning. Yiu later confirmed all was not well with the six-year-old.

"He was shod on Monday and had not been comfortable adjusting to the new shoes, and then we found he had a strong pulse and a little bit of heat in his left fore," Yiu said. "We are playing very safe with him, and he won't be going to Nakayama. For the sake of a single race, it simply isn't worth risking his health."

The cancellation of his showdown with King's Stand Stakes winner Scenic Blast, with whom Sacred Kingdom now shares the world's top billing, echoes Sacred Kingdom's cancelled Japan trip for the same event a year ago. On that occasion, it was an unrelated fracture to a sesamoid bone, discovered in mid-September, that kept him out of racing for several months. The gelding took a few runs to return to top form and regained his place as the world's top-ranked sprinter in winning the KrisFlyer Sprint in Singapore in May before he failed to produce his best form in the Golden Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot in June, finishing fifth.

Yiu said he was hopeful the injury would prove to be a minor setback and would not affect the horse's preparation for the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Sprint in December, a race he won brilliantly in 2007 but was forced to miss last season.

"We will take the shoes off, we'll have a good look at him in the next few days and we will X-ray his joints to be sure there are no problems there," the trainer said. "The Hong Kong Sprint is still a fair way off so, if there is no more serious problem, he should be okay to get back to his training for the December internationals. The main thing in stopping with him right now is that we still have the horse and we can assess where he is over the coming days."