Murphy left cursing luck

Divers is set for a mid-winter break after unseating Keith Mercer in Saturday’s Spinal Research The Atlantic 4 Gold Cup at Cheltenham.

Having won at the Festival in March and finishing third in last month’s Paddy Power Gold Cup, Ferdy Murphy’s grey was considered a major player for the valuable handicap.

But having been ridden closer to the pace than in the past, Divers was never travelling with the same fluency and parted company with Mercer at the 11th fence.

The winner Quantitativeeasing was just ahead of the seven-year-old in the Paddy Power and behind at the Festival, leaving Murphy rueing his luck.

“We rode him a bit more forceful than we had been doing and the plan didn’t really work out as he was on his head a bit the whole way,” said Murphy.

“Having said that, he stays and finishes off his races well so who knows what would have happened? With Quantitativeeasing winning, you’d have said we could have been right there.

“He’s come out of the race well and we could just do with a bit more luck at the minute.

“We’ll give him a bit of a break now and he’ll probably run again around February time before going for something at the Festival.”

Mercer suffered a broken arm in the fall, the latest in a string of injuries for the rider.

Murphy is now short of jockeys after retained rider Graham Lee suffered a broken collarbone at Huntingdon last week.

“He’s getting a plate on today and they’ll know more after having the operation, but he’s had some unbelievable bad luck,” the trainer added.