Paul Hanagan has been ruled out of Royal Ascot this afternoon after failing to recover from a neck injury.
The champion jockey had four booked rides for day four of the showpiece meeting, including Lily's Angel in the Albany Stakes, the supplemented Glen's Diamond in the King Edward VII Stakes and Barefoot Lady in the Coronation Stakes.
Hanagan suffered a spasm in his neck during his sleep on Wednesday night and although he rode twice on Thursday, he gave up his final ride and the situation has not improved since.
His agent Richard Hale said: "He's not riding today and he's obviously not happy as he had a good book of rides, but what can you do?
"He just had this spasm in his neck the night before last and it just hasn't got any better. He hasn't had a fall or anything, so we don't know how it's happened really.
"Michael Dods is actually trying to help us out by putting us in touch with one of his owners, Kevin Kirkup, who looks at these sorts of things.
"Apparently he's down at Ascot so hopefully Paul can meet him and we'll see if there's anything he can do.
"I don't know if he'll be riding at Ayr on Saturday yet - we'll just have to take it day by day.
"If he can see someone who knows what they're talking about then hopefully we can move a bit further on."
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