Sceau Royal, one of the leading British-trained contenders for the Arkle Trophy at the Cheltenham Festival next week, will miss the race and possibly the remainder of the season after sustaining a minor injury at Alan King’s stable.
Sceau Royal was the general 7-1 third-favourite with bookmakers for the Festival’s championship event for two-mile novice chasers, having taken the Henry VIII Novice Chase at Sandown – the only two-mile Grade One novice in Britain before Cheltenham – in December.
News that he would miss the Arkle resulted in Willie Mullins’s Footpad, who had been weak in the betting over the weekend, tightening at the head of the market to a top price of 6-4, while another Irish challenger, Henry de Bromhead’s Petit Mouchoir, is 9-4 from 3-1. Saint Calvados, trained by Harry Whittington, and Brain Power, trained by Nicky Henderson, are 4-1 and 15-2 respectively, and it is 18-1 bar the four.
“It’s very slight and he’s perfectly sound but there was just a little bit of filling there,” King told Racing UK. “We scanned him this morning, it’s minute but it’s there and we can’t kick on, so we’ll take a pull.
“It’s possible [he could run again this season]. I just wanted to get the news out there that I couldn’t get him for Cheltenham and if there’s the slightest doubt, we’ll finish him for the season. But let’s see what happens.”
Jumps racing returned in Britain on Monday after a blank week caused by the cold weather – with meetings at Lingfield and Southwell – but the scheduled card at Exeter on Tuesday afternoon has been abandoned because of a waterlogged track. Irish jumping, meanwhile, is expected to return at Navan on Thursday, while there is a strong entry for Friday’s card at Leopardstown, where Ruby Walsh could be back from injury after four months out.
Henderson has the key runners in Saturday’s Imperial Cup Handicap Hurdle at Sandown Park as top weight Call Me Lord, third in the Grade Two Kingwell Hurdle last time out, is set to carry nearly a stone more than the next runner in the handicap. If Call Me Lord, a 9-1 chance, lines up on Saturday, his stable companion Whatswrongwithyou, the early favourite at 13-2, will have an ideal racing weight of 10st 13lb. The £42,000 first prize comes with a £100,000 bonus if the winner can follow up in any race at the Cheltenham Festival the following week.
Southwell 2.20 Crosse Fire 2.50 Avocet (nb) 3.20 Samtu 3.50 Hisar 4.20 Chaucer’s Tale (nap) 4.50 Princess Way 5.20 Mimic’s Memory
Newcastle and Exeter abandoned
– Tips by Greg Wood.
