Group One winner Dubai Mile has been ruled out for the rest of the season through injury.

The three-year-old was expected to make his debut for Martyn and Freddie Meade in Saturday’s Sky Bet York Stakes on the Knavesmire having joined from Charlie Johnston.

However, last season’s Criterium de Saint-Cloud winner suffered an injury during his final piece of work on Tuesday.

“We were preparing him to run in the Sky Bet York Stakes when he suffered a conjugal fracture on his near-hind fetlock, so it is an absolute tragedy,” Martyn Meade told the Press Association.

“We were giving him his last bit of work yesterday on our watered peat moss gallop, which was absolutely perfect for him, but it was just a complete freak accident.

“We managed to get him straight up Newmarket, where he has been operated on and it has been pinned. That appears to be a success.

“However, he is clearly out for the rest of the season, I would think. It always happens to the best horses. You wouldn’t believe it.”

The son of Roaring Lion progressed nicely through his juvenile campaign for Charlie and Mark Johnston.

Yet he had failed to build on that success in three starts this term. Although fifth to Chaldean in the 2000 Guineas, he was subsequently ninth in the Derby and finished eight lengths behind King Of Steel in the King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Thereafter, he joined the Meades’ Manton Park Stud after a deal was secured to purchase a half-share in the colt from owner Ahmad Al Shaikh, with a view to a stallion career.

“We will have to assess how he recovers from that surgery and assess whether or not he will have a racing career or whether he will be going to stud,” Meade went on.

“It is heartbreaking really, also for Ahmed who is our joint-owner, who has been very good about it, I have to say. He has been very understanding.

“When it happens, it affects everyone, the lads who do them, they get very upset by it, understandably so. It is terrible for everyone. A huge blow.”

Dubai Mile could make his debut for Martyn and Freddie Meade in Saturday’s Sky Bet York Stakes.

The three-year-old progressed nicely through his juvenile campaign, topped by landing the Group One Criterium de Saint-Cloud last October for Charlie and Mark Johnston.

However, he has failed to build on that in three runs this term. Although fifth to Chaldean in the 2000 Guineas, he was subsequently ninth in the Derby and finished eight lengths behind King Of Steel in the King Edward VII at Royal Ascot.

Thereafter, he joined the Meades’ Manton Park Stud after a deal was secured to purchase a half-share in the colt from owner Ahmad Al Shaikh, with a view to a stallion career.

Freddie Meade says the son of Roaring Lion has settled in well at Manton and while he holds an entry in the Group One Bayerisches Zuchtrennen at Munich on Sunday, York could be the preferred option.

“We have left him the race in Munich, but I don’t think that will happen,” said Meade. “The possibility is we might go to York on Saturday for the Group Two.

“He seems to have settled in well. Everything seems good and he has fitted into the regime and everything.

“The York Stakes was what we earmarked as a starting point. He will definitely get the entry and we will see how he is through the week.

“The ultimate is to get another Group One with him if we can. We’ll start there and see where we go, but we are coming into the part of the season where he will maybe get his favoured soft ground, but he is pretty ground-versatile, it is just that his optimum is with a bit of juice in the ground.

“Hopefully he will be an exciting horse and that we can do some good with him.”

Dubai Mile will be aimed at the Grand Prix de Paris with the possibility of a run at Royal Ascot in between.

The Ahmad Al Shaikh-owned colt, a son of Roaring Lion, won twice last season – including in Group One company – and then finished an excellent fifth to Chaldean in the Qipco 2000 Guineas at Newmarket on his three-year-old debut.

Sent off a 25-1 chance on Daniel Muscutt’s first Betfred Derby ride at Epsom on Saturday, he was prominent on the inside rail before fading into ninth once the pace quickened.

Trainer Charlie Johnston said: “I think it was a great position to have got into and saving ground.

“I didn’t think they were going that quick, so you have to be handyish – that is what I felt at the time. The winner (Auguste Rodin) and the second (King Of Steel) have come from a long way back.

“I could feel he was in a bit of trouble about six to five (furlongs) out, just as the pace started to lift.

“He wasn’t sitting there full of horse under him. He was hitting that flat spot he hits and whereas on other tracks you can hit a flat spot and get away with it, here you hit a flat spot and the race happens, then you run on when it is all over.

“The pacemaker couldn’t decide whether to go inside or outside and that didn’t help him, but only cost him a length or two – it wasn’t a significant reason for where he finished.

“Albeit we have had and have plenty of confidence in the horse, he was still a 25-1 shot in the Derby.”

Dubai Mile holds engagements in the Group Two King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot on June 23 and also the Irish Derby at the Curragh on July 2.

However, Johnston is keen to head to ParisLongchamp for the Grand Prix de Paris, over the same mile-and-a-half trip on July 14.

“We will see about Ascot and I’ve always thought the Grand Prix de Paris was a race that would really suit him,” said Johnston. “I’d like to have that as part of his plans.

“Whether or not he goes to Ascot in between, we’ll see.

“If he did everything, it would be three weeks and three weeks – it is six weeks until Paris.”