Alan King is worried Trueshan could have been in one too many battles having finished only second on his reappearance in Nottingham’s Barry Hills Further Flight Stakes.

A winner of 13 of his 22 starts, the dual Group One scorer used the Colwick Park Listed contest as his starting point 12 months ago and was the 4-9 favourite to defend his crown and make a winning return.

However, having travelled smoothly into contention at the three-furlong pole, he could not get past Hugo Palmer’s Rajinsky, leaving the Barbury Castle handler to ponder if his star stayer has gone to the well once too often – with his next outing potentially proving crucial.

He said: “I’m very disappointed. He hasn’t run a bad race, but it was disappointing.

“Hollie thought she would win three out but knew she was beat two out.

“I just worry he has had a lot of very hard battles and just worry it is starting to leave its mark on him mentally. That’s what worries me more than anything, but we will know more after his next race.

“He will have to step forward from that and I’m not even sure where we would go.

“I would be a liar if I said I wasn’t disappointed, I’m very disappointed and I am concerned about whether he is a little bit mentally scarred these days.”

Trueshan ran only five times last year due to the quick summer ground, winning the Northumberland Plate but having to settle for third behind Kyprios in the Goodwood Cup before being beaten a neck in the Doncaster Cup.

He rounded off the year with a third Long Distance Cup verdict on Champions Day at Ascot, but King said: “He’s had some brutally hard races.

“Goodwood we jarred him up and we got him back for Doncaster but he then had another hard, deep race. He ran terribly well at Goodwood, but at Doncaster he was remembering that and didn’t let himself down. We got him back for Ascot but that was a gruelling race as well.”

When asked if race fitness played its part on reappearance, King added: “He has worked awfully well and we don’t weigh them, but we had to go for an extra long girth to get round him today – he looked really big and powerful.

“He was having a nice blow without an excessive one and I don’t want to use that as an excuse, but the next race will tell us a lot.”

Despite his defeat, Trueshan is still the 11-2 favourite, pushed out from 9-2, with Coral for the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot, with Kyprios a doubt to defend his title.