When a new champion is crowned at Cheltenham, an old one is inevitably deposed, and even the greatest Festival performers often take their leave with a defeat. Sprinter Sacre was one of the very best, and the second of his Festival victories, in the 2013 Champion Chase, was rated the best of the modern era by the influential Timeform organisation. After being pulled up here on Wednesday, however, it seems unthinkable that he will ever again compete against the best two-milers, and so his racing days may be drawing to a close.
Nicky Henderson, Sprinter Sacre’s trainer, would not be drawn on the horse’s future after a limp capitulation in the second day’s feature race. First, the former champion will be tested for signs of an infection, or any repeat of the bleeding which he suffered when racing at Ascot in January, but Henderson is satisfied that there was no repeat of the irregular heartbeat which cost him his unbeaten record in December 2013.
“I’d have been very surprised if his heart was wrong because that has never ever been an issue since the day that happened at Kempton,” Henderson said. “There have been long, slow, quiet days when things haven’t been right, but having said that, since Christmas things have been going so well.
“He’s going to be scoped now, because he was just a bit noisy going down the back. It sounds as if there’s something internal that’s affecting him now, but it’s not his heart, that’s perfectly normal.
“We haven’t had a chance to even think about it [whether Sprinter Sacre will race again]. It’s disappointing for everybody who has worked their socks off to get him back, but we said nobody was pretending he was the horse he was two years ago, because otherwise he would have been 3-1 on.
“Those were the great days when he was genuinely unbeatable. We knew he wasn’t that, but we’ve taken a massive step backwards. The one thing you’d say is that he was two lengths behind Dodging Bullets last time and we should be beating him. At the top of the hill he crept on to their tails, but you could soon see that both he and Sire De Grugy [last year’s winner] were going nowhere.
“No predictions can be made today about what his future will be. He has been a great horse and if it is wrong to go on, I am sure we won’t do that. But if we can find a switch to get rid of whatever is wrong with him today, then who knows. There are still, technically, years in him.”
The defeat of Sprinter Sacre leaves Henderson without a winner on the first two days of the Festival, during which he has saddled 15 runners.
Willie Mullins, however, continued his excellent form when Don Poli took the Grade One RSA Chase, looking a realistic contender for next season’s Gold Cup in the process
Don Poli was the second Irish-trained winner on the day following the victory of Dermot Weld’s Windsor Park in the opening Neptune Investment Management Novice Hurdle. Davy Russell, Windsor Park’s jockey, then completed a double when Rivage D’Or took the Cross-Country Chase, a race in which two well-fancied runners, Toutancarmont and Quantitativeeasing, crashed through a rail at the second-last obstacle.
Patrick McCann, a photographer for the Racing Post, was struck by one of the horses in the incident. He was taken to Southmead Hospital in Bristol with a suspected leg injury.
