The Cheltenham Festival, which starts its four-day run on March 14, has already lost a number of high-profile runners through injury and it was dealt a further blow on Tuesday when Thistlecrack (GB) (Kayf Tara {GB}) was ruled out of the remainder of the National Hunt season with a tendon tear.
The 9-year-old had been red-hot favourite for the Timico Cheltenham Gold Cup on March 17 but will now be sidelined while he recovers from his injury.
His trainer Colin Tizzard confirmed, “Thistlecrack is out for the season, unfortunately. He had a bit of heat in his leg last night and was a bit sore. We had the leg scanned this morning and he has a slight tear on his tendon.”
Thistlecrack's string of nine consecutive victories, including last year's G1 Ryanair World Hurdle at the Festival, came to a dramatic end recently when he was beaten a head in the G2 Cotswold Chase by Many Clouds (Ire) (Cloudings {Ire}), who subsequently collapsed and died from a pulmonary haemorrhage minutes after passing the post.
Despite temporarily losing his star chaser, Tizzard still has a strong hand for the Gold Cup with his Welsh National and Hennessy Gold Cup winner Native River (Ire) (Indian River {Fr}) taking over as favourite, with his stablemate Cue Card (GB) (King's Theatre {Ire}) now second in the betting.
Other star names on the absentee list for this year's Cheltenham Festival are the last two winners of the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Don Cossack (Ger) (Sholokhov {Ire}), who was retired last month after also suffering a tendon injury, and Coneygree (GB) (Karinga Bay {GB}), while the two most recent Champion Hurdle winners, Annie Power (Ire) (Shirocco {Ger}) and Faugheen (Ire) (Germany), are also out injured.
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
