Sakhee's Secret will not be contesting the Darley July Cup at Newmarket Racecourse on Friday, and thus will be unable to bid for back-to-back triumphs in the said event.
The four-year-old Sakhee's Secret has spurred some doubt in his trainer Hughie Morrison's mind after he hasn't shown some glimmer in his work after finishing dead last in the Golden Jubilee Stakes at Ascot Racecourse last month.
"He ran too bad to be true the other day and though he is clinically fine, he had a temperature last weekend and I just think there was something simmering there."
Morrison added: "You can't really take a chance with him in Group One company, if it was a handicap you might get away with it.
"I think he's fine now but he appears to have had some sort of viral shock and we need to give nature a chance to let him fully recover and build up - even though outwardly you would think he was fine.
"He was muscularly sore for the whole of last week.
"It's a real sickener as the way he won the race last year, the stiff six furlongs there looks made for him.
However, Sakhee's Secret trainer Morrison said that the Nunthorpe and some other races are still possible.