Ulaan scopes badly
Jessica Harrington’s staff will now administer treatment to remove mucus from his lungs, and they still rate him a “possible” to make next month’s Arkle Trophy at Cheltenham.
Ulaan Baatar was sent off the 4-5 favourite for the Flyingbolt Novice Chase after his impressive victory at Leopardstown in the Irish Arkle last month.
Although he was travelling well enough for most of yesterday’s Grade Two race, he quickly weakened and was exhausted over the last two fences, finishing 20 lengths behind winner Watson Lake.
“He came back sound last night and ate up, but we scoped him today, he scoped dirty, and the vet is adamant this had a big effect on his running yesterday,” said Mrs Harrington’s assistant Eamonn Leigh.
“He will be on treatment for six to eight days now. It will not be anything strong, just something to get rid of the mucus in his lungs.
“He is still a possible for Cheltenham, but we would have to see how he went when he went back into work, and he would probably need a racecourse gallop.
“It’s not all doom and gloom. At least we know what the problem was. There seems to have been a lot of it around this winter.”
Ulaan Baatar’s Arkle price drifted to a general 14-1 yesterday, having previously been around half those odds.
Leigh had better news on Moscow Flyer, who is currently in strong work ahead of the Queen Mother Champion Chase.
