George suffers festival blow

Lord Of Illusion has been ruled out of the Cheltenham Festival after failing to please trainer Tom George in a spin this morning.

The eight-year-old was low as 6-1 with Coral for the Royal & SunAlliance Chase after notching up a hat-trick this season, culminating in a convincing 10-length win over Baron Windrush at Cheltenham in January.

However, he will not make the Grade One contest or either of his alternative engagements in the William Hill Trophy Chase and National Hunt Chase.

“He won’t be running at Cheltenham. He worked a bit flat this morning,” said George.

“There’s nothing wrong with the horse. He just had to go on a course of antibiotics, nothing unusual, but it has knocked him back a bit and we could really do with another week to get him ready.

“You can’t send a horse to Cheltenham unless he is 110% and he is really only 95% at the moment.”

Lord Of Illusion is also entered in the John Smith’s Grand National and George will target next month's Aintree meeting.

“He is entered at Aintree so we will look towards that meeting,” the trainer added.