Blow for Nicholls as Bay put down
The Paul Nicholls-trained eight-year-old had won two novice chases this season before finishing sixth in the Welsh National.
The champion trainer reported that he shattered his off-hind fetlock whilst doing a routine canter and was too badly injured to be saved.
Speaking in his Betfair column, Nicholls said: “One of the most distressing parts of this job is when we lose horses, and unfortunately I am sad to report that we lost Watamu Bay this morning.
“He was doing a routine canter when shattering his off-hind fetlock, and had to be put down.
“You must inform the owners first in these circumstances, and I have just let Jared (Sullivan) know.
“But trainers have a duty to keep punters informed too, especially as I see Watamu Bay was prominent in the betting for the National Hunt Chase at the Festival.”
OWNER David Wesley Yates is hopeful his gallant grey Monet’s Garden will soon be back in his own box at Nicky Richards’ yard in Greystoke.
The hugely popular 13-year-old has valiantly fought back from a life-threatening injury, showing many of the characteristics that marked his racing career.
“He’s doing very nicely and we’ll have him home fairly soon. We’ve had hundreds of flowers, emails, and gifts for him. It’s been phenomenal and has all helped,” Wesley Yates told Racing UK.
“They have done a great job with him, the care and attention he has received has been first class. We need to be certain he is 100 per cent to get him home, we don’t want to be taking him back to the vets. They have briefed us on his after-care and treatment.
“The next step is to give him exercise to strengthen his foot tendon, nothing too boisterous, he needs walking in a straight line rather than a horse walker.
“He needs a lot of TLC basically. We need to plan an active retirement if we can because he’s an active horse. He has a wonderful temperament and that has undoubtedly helped his recovery.
“He’ll be in his own box, have his own bed with his own pals and that will give him plenty to think about.”
Colin Wilson
DONALD McCain is leaning towards running his stable star Peddlers Cross in the Victor Chandler Morebattle Hurdle at Kelso on February 17.
The Neptune Investment Management Novices’ Hurdle winner remains unbeaten over timber after defeating Starluck and Binocular in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle.
He was supposed to run in Haydock’s Champion Hurdle Trial on January 22 but that meeting was frozen off.
Sandown and Ffos Las were also in the mix last weekend before he coughed coming off the gallops.
The Kingwell Hurdle at Wincanton on February 19 is also a possible but with stablemate Overturn pencilled in for that, a trip to the Borders track is favourite.
“He galloped this morning, Jason (Maguire) was on Overturn and Adrian (Lane) was on Peddlers and the horse is well so hopefully we can run him next week somewhere,” said McCain.
“He came off the gallop, gave a cough so we scoped him and it was mucky, I couldn’t have run him. Touch wood it is out of the way.
“In an ideal world I would say Peddlers goes to Kelso and Overturn goes for the Kingwell, but that’s ground permitting,” he told Racing UK.
Nick Robson
LAST season’s Coral Cup winner Spirit River has been ruled out for the rest of the season.
The Nicky Henderson-trained six-year-old looked a bright prospect for novice chases but fell on his first two attempts over the bigger obstacles.
He returned to timber for the Cleeve Hurdle but after travelling well for a long way, stopped quickly and it later transpired he had picked up a problem.
“I’m afraid to say he won’t be running at the Festival this year – he won’t run again this season,” owner Michael Buckley told At The Races.
“He has had a bumpy year to say the least. He had two heavy falls and ran back over hurdles in the Cleeve but he picked up a little bit of a problem.
“Hopefully he’ll be back in the autumn and he’ll go back over fences. He is only six and is a horse we like so he will be given all the time in the world.”
