Edredon under the weather

A throat infection was today diagnosed as the reason for the lacklustre performance of Edredon Bleu at Wincanton yesterday.

A relieved Henrietta Knight will now consider running her veteran in the Daily Telegraph Cup at Cheltenham, although it is more likely he will be put away to wait for a race over hurdles in the autumn.

Inevitably questions were asked as to the racing future of the 2003 King George VI race winner when Jim Culloty pulled him up on the second circuit of the Country Gentlemen’s Association Chase, won by Heros Collonges.

But Knight explained: “He has a sore throat, an infection which couldn’t be seen or detected from the outside. It’s very painful and his throat would have been hurting him in the race.

“It doesn’t take long to get better on a course of antibiotics but although he’s in at Cheltenham, I’m not that keen to go as apart from his win in the Queen Mother Champion Chase he doesn’t tend to do so well in the spring.

“He may well come back in a hurdle race in the autumn and it remains my intention for him to retire on a winning note. Physically, he’s absolutely fine.”

Jim Lewis, who has escaped to the warmer shores of Tenerife, also confirmed that the 13-year-old would race again, but was worried about the amount of infections that have been affecting stables nationwide.

“I hope that he will be better by Cheltenham. It just seems to be a mild dose and we won’t be drawing stumps with him yet,” said the owner.

“There seems to be so much of this sort of thing about, and it is just a matter of keeping your nerve and running the horses, even though it means you have a chance of catching something.

“What we could do with is a really cold spell for a couple of weeks to get rid of it.”