Jamie Spencer has given up his four intended mounts at Newbury this afternoon after suffering a bout of chickenpox.

The timing could hardly be worse for the former champion jockey with Royal Ascot less than a week away and his agent David Harrison admits he will have to take it day by day.

"Jamie's got chickenpox so he obviously won't be riding today," said Harrison.

"He sat in the bath for five hours last night to try and get the lumps down so we'll just have to see how he feels tomorrow and take it from there.

"He sounded pretty rough when I spoke to him this morning but he is hoping he'll be back tomorrow."