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Neil King will sit tight with burgeoning stable star Lookaway, following a sub-par start to the season.

Having won an Irish point-to-point last November, the five-year-old was unbeaten in two starts in bumpers last season, latterly taking a Grade Two at Aintree in April.

However, the son of Ask tasted a tame odds-on defeat upon his Warwick hurdling debut last month and was beaten over 16 lengths by Hullnback on his second start at Haydock, with that rival reversing the form from Aintree.

Far from crestfallen, the Barbury Castle handler feels Lookaway will rediscover his true form once the yard hits form.

King said: "It hasn't fallen for him this year. Our horses are just out of sorts at the moment and he is very much included in that.

"The real Lookaway is there – I can promise you that.

"It will all happen. We are just taking a bit of time to get them right. It will be a little time before you see him again, but the stable is just not in the best of form at the moment and that applies to him as well."

The yard has had a quiet time with just five winners from 67 runners this term, although with The Knot Is Tied scoring at Lingfield last week, the signs that a spell in the doldrums could be coming to an end.

King is struggling to find an explanation for the downturn and added: "We can't quite put our finger on it, but we have done a number of things, making changes in the last couple of weeks to try and change it."

He went on: "A lot of horses will be having a break in this frosty weather at the moment, which will do them a power of good, and hopefully we will soon be bouncing back.

"We had a winner last week and another couple who ran all right, and I think they are turning the corner, but we just have to get round that corner.

"At the moment we have no plans for Lookaway, just because of the situation we are in. We will just wait for the horses to tell us when they are ready.

"We have entries for Fakenham on Sunday, but I don't think there will be anything before Christmas. Hopefully, from Boxing Day onwards, we should get going.

"The good thing is the vets are saying they are all healthy, they can't find anything wrong, and we don't have a virus in the yard or anything.

"But at the same time, we just haven't had the rub of the green and we want to wait for the ball to roll for us."