Injury blow could scupper Gift's season

Top staying hurdler Iris’s Gift suffered a bad injury on the gallops this morning and could be out for the season.

The seven-year-old, who beat Baracouda to land the Stayers’ Hurdle at Cheltenham in March, fractured a bone in his leg.

Trainer Jonjo O’Neill was naturally downcast about the injury to the brilliant grey, who was due to begin a chasing career.

He said: “Iris’s Gift had a light exercise this morning and pulled up lame in a hind leg. We took him for a precautionary X-ray and we found that he had a fracture.

“It is bitterly disappointing. He’s a lovely horse, a grand lad. I’m not sure how long he will be out for, but I should think we are looking a little way ahead.

“We just don’t know how bad it is at this stage, but he will need a bit of time, obviously.”

Iris’s Gift has proved a bargain buy for owner Robert Lester, who bought him out of a field for £5,000. He has picked up almost £300,000 in total prize money, having won 11 of his 16 career starts.

He was expected to make his chasing bow at Bangor on October 9 and would certainly have been one of the leading lights in the novice chasing division this season.

He had been schooling well at Jackdaws Castle and was a general 16-1 chance for the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup.

“It is a real blow, there is no doubt about it,” added O’Neill. “But in racing, these things happen from time to time.

“It is disappointing for me, for the owner, for the yard as a whole and for all those who were lucky enough to see him at Cheltenham, where he ran his heart out.

“He’s a lovely horse, and hopefully we will nurse him back. To say I am disappointed – that’s a bit of an understatement.”

Iris’s Gift signed off last campaign by finishing second to stablemate Rhinestone Cowboy in the Champion Stayers Hurdle at Punchestown.