A lack of runway has seen blueblood filly Charm Stone sent to the paddock, with connections pulling up stumps on a Group 1 Robert Sangster Stakes tilt next weekend.
The $1.55 million yearling purchase, who is trained by Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr, is a three-time Stakes winner from six starts and had been set to use last Saturday's Redelva Stakes into a highly valuable G1 opportunity.
"She had a knee chip removed after the Golden Rose and the timing meant we had exactly 12 weeks from paddock to the Redelva and that meant not a single thing could possibly go wrong," managing owner Sheamus Mills explained.
"After four months off, fitness just ended up getting the better of us and 12 weeks just wasn't long enough, which became evident when she needed to be having her first trial it was going to be difficult to have her ready."
A winner of the G3 Ottawa and Quezette Stakes, as well as the Listed Atlantic Jewel Stakes, Mills said Charm Stone will now have a two-month spell to prepare for the spring.
Mills admitted there aren't a multitude of options in spring for mares and said she will likely face the task of stepping beyond 1200 metres or tackling the boys.
Despite not having raced since a close-up fifth in the Golden Rose last September, Mills is confident in Charm Stone's ability to train on beyond her three-year-old season.
"While the early opinion of I Am Invincible as a stallion was that he got very good precocious stock, I think now the more people have given them time, because they all want to run early on natural ability, the more you look after them, the better the rewards later," Mills said.
"They train on better than they go earlier and Imperatriz is the prime example … I'd hate not to have her around as a four-year-old mare."
Charm Stone's half-sister by Capitalist was passed in at the recent Inglis Easter Yearling Sale with a $300,000 reserve, while Mills added five fillies to his collection, headlined by a $950,000 Zoustar filly out of Formality.
Despite Charm Stone bypassing the South Australian Carnival, horses Mills manages will still be strongly represented, headlined by Roots in the Sangster, with James McDonald aboard.
Alexandra Stakes winner Vibrant Sun will head to the Australasian Oaks, while Gumdrops and Pivot City are likely to clash in the Tobin Bronze Stakes.