Racehorse Castle Harbour was all set to head to the Far East this month until a seven-figure deal fell through because of his medical history.

Bermuda Thoroughbred Racing had agreed to sell the three-year-old after the owners of the syndicate decided the hefty sum of money from Hong Kong was too good to turn down.

However, Castle Harbour, one of the most promising horses in the BTR stable, fell foul of the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s stringent veterinary standards having undergone minor surgeries.

Simon Scupham, the BTR chairman, believed the collapse of the sale could be a “blessing in disguise” and felt there were good reasons to rebuff the offer.

“In Hong Kong there’s a window of opportunity for these extremely wealthy guys to send their agents over [to England] and look at horses to take back and race,” Scupham said.

“We went through all this ‘shall we sell him, shall we keep him’ and in the end there was a feeling that money in hand was the best thing to do.

“It was such a big amount and the other good thing about Hong Kong is that it’s members only so it wouldn’t be a case of ‘we could have done that’.

“If he started winning all these races it wouldn’t be in your face, which would have been hard to take.”

Scupham said Castle Harbour, who has had a couple of chips removed from his legs, was completely fit and healthy and that the buyers were left heartbroken when the purchase broke down.

“Hong Kong are very serious with their veterinary process,” he said. “Normally when there’s any kind of operation — even if it’s a palate, which is quite minor — they quite often refuse.

“The potential buyers were absolutely heartbroken that they couldn’t get him and the deal fell through.

“I think most of us are somewhat happy it fell through. It’s almost fate as you can’t make something happen and it was a hard call to sell him.”

Castle Harbour has enjoyed a superb start to his career, winning the Alex Scott Maiden Stakes at Newmarket in April before storming to victory in the Conundrum HR Consulting Stakes at York in May.

He then came up short in his attempt for a third straight victory in the group three Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot last month.

The 9-2 favourite finished sixth in very competitive field, with Ribchester, who won last year’s Mill Reef Stakes, romping home to an emphatic victory in the seven-furlong race.

Scupham believed there were several possible explanations as to why Castle Harbour failed to deliver.

“It was an extremely soft [ground] day and a lot of races at Royal Ascot had weird results, and a lot of really good horses didn’t run well,” he said.

“He came out of the stalls slow, travelled exceptionally well to get up to the bunch, but in the last two furlongs nothing happened.

“We’re not sure whether it was tiredness, the ground or just upstairs he didn’t fancy it. That’s always the question with horses — do they have the heads?”

Castle Harbour, who is part of BTR’s second syndicate, the Pink Sands account, along with Sir George Somers, could now be gelded in an effort to improve his behaviour problems.

“His stallion prospects [as a breeder] are probably remote so it could be best to get him gelded and get any questions out of his head,” Scupham said. “Then you can really train these horses hard as they don’t have any distractions.

“Maybe we’ll have one more shot with all his ‘carriage’ and then cut him and bring him back for an autumn campaign.”

The BTR has already revealed it intends on selling Johnny Barnes, another John Gosden-trained horse, at the end of the season.