Racing News: The Irish team for the Smurfit Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham next month was weakened yesterday with the news that the Willie Mullins-trained Sadlers Wings will miss the festival due to injury.
Sadlers Wings returned from almost 20 months on the sidelines when running a fine fourth to Brave Inca in the AIG at Leopardstown last month but has suffered a recurrence of the ligament problem that kept him off the racecourse for so long. He had been as short as 16 to 1 in some books for the Champion Hurdle which was scheduled to be his next start.
"He has torn ligaments in a front leg which is a recurrence of the injury he had two years ago," reported Mullins yesterday. "He is out for the season, if not longer. These problems don't heal quickly." The trainer added: "I deliberately didn't enter him at Gowran last weekend in case I was tempted to run him. But he hurt himself in the first bit of nice handy work he did after Leopardstown . . . there was no evidence of anything wrong up to that. We had minded him like a child and there was nothing to suggest his leg was sore."
In other Champion Hurdle new yesterday Cashmans bookmakers took the unusual step of quoting the double title-holder Hardy Eustace "with a run" for next month's championship.
The Dessie Hughes trained star is 3 to 1 "with a run" for Cheltenham and the move comes on the back of last week's ante-post action on the Red Mills Trial which also saw Hardy Eustace quoted "with a run" before being ruled out of the race.
Hughes said the horse was not 100 per cent right last weekend but reported yesterday that Hardy Eustace is "fine".
A Cashmans spokesman explained: "We've done this because he ran very badly in his last race in the AIG and he didn't make the race last weekend. The omens certainly aren't as encouraging as they have been in previous years. I know it might look like we knew something last week before the Gowran race but all we were trying to do was balance the books. In the end we didn't manage to do that. It was a bad day."
Grand National hero Hedgehunter remains as low as 12 to 1 with some firms for the Cheltenham Gold Cup and chasing's blue riband remains a serious option for the horse although a final decision has been postponed until nearer the festival.
Willie Mullins said yesterday: "We thought we would make a call after the Hennessy but we've decided instead to wait a little longer. I was disappointed he got so tired in the Hennessy and the first day after that he didn't eat. But he has been eating better since . . . It looks like he is recovering quickly and we will see how he goes over the next couple of weeks. "
A return to Aintree for the National is definitely on the cards, however, and combining the two great races might still be on Hedgehunter's agenda. "He is old enough now to do that and even though he has a huge amount of weight he will go back to Aintree," Mullins added.
Last weekend's Gowran winner Forget The Past could go for a Grade Two double at Fairyhouse on Saturday after being one of the 17 left in the Osmosis Ireland Bobbyjo Chase at yesterday's forfeit stage. Michael O'Brien's horse is 33 to 1 for the Totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup after winning well at Gowran.
The other feature at Fairyhouse will be the Winning Fair Juvenile Hurdle where the former Group Three winner Bobs Pride is one of the 13 still in. Dermot Weld's classy flat horse started favourite for his jumping debut at Leopardstown but managed only fifth. Possible rivals at the weekend include Clear Riposte and First Row.
