Nicky Henderson has declared three of his horses as non-runners on Wednesday’s Cheltenham Festival card, after five of his six runners were pulled up on day one of the Festival.
The non-runners include Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase contender Jonbon and Shishkin, who was a Gold Cup hope on Friday’s card, owing to concerns over the health of his string. In a statement today (13 March), Mr Henderson said something was affecting his horses’ performance.
The statement read: “I’m afraid we’ve had to make some very tough decisions following the very disappointing performances of all bar one of our horses yesterday.
“It was there for all to see that there’s obviously something affecting nearly all our horses and consequently we have reluctantly decided that Jonbon, First Street and Kingston Pride will not run today.
“It’s impossible to identify any reason for all the disappointments and none of these three horses have given us any cause for concern and all yesterday’s runners were scoped clean post-race and I’m glad to say all are sound this morning. There will unfortunately be further non-runners on Thursday and Friday.
“I hope everybody will appreciate that we have to do this in everybody’s interests, particularly the horses’. It is very, very disappointing for everybody.”
Jingko Blue will still run in Wednesday’s Gallagher Novices’ Hurdle, as will Doddiethegreat and Lucky Place in the Coral Cup (3.15).
Another shock non-runner was declared by Mr Henderson in a statement this morning in the form of Friday’s Gold Cup hopeful Shishkin.
The statement read: “Very sadly it won’t be possible for Shishkin to run in the Gold Cup on Friday. He was scoped, as have all our potential runners this week, but unfortunately he’s shown an unsatisfactory picture on which he couldn’t possibly run.
“He appears to be 100% in himself and has been working and schooling better than ever and we really were looking forward to Friday. It’s hoped that, along with all the other non-participants this week, they will be back in time for Aintree or Punchestown.”
Mr Henderson delivered further bad news for British hopes at the Cheltenham Festival, declaring Champ will be a non-runner in Thursday’s feature race, the Stayers’ Hurdle.
“Regrettably Champ has also succumbed and will not run in tomorrow’s Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle and the equivalent race at Aintree could be on the agenda,” he said.
Sir Gino, who is Mr Henderson’s only favourite across the 28-race meeting, has drifted to 7-4 since the announcement but he has not yet been ruled out of the JCB Triumph Hurdle on Friday.
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