Tendon injury sidelines Good Land for the season

Molly Hunter
October 12, 2023 5:19 pm

Grade One winner had been closing in on chasing debut.

Barry Connell’s Grade One winner Good Land has sustained a tendon injury and will miss the National Hunt season.

The seven-year-old was a bumper winner at beginning of last term and developed into a Grade One-winning hurdler, taking a Leopardstown maiden before returning to land the Nathaniel Lacy & Prtnrs Solicitors Novice Hurdle.

Subsequently the gelding lined up for the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival and finished a respectable fourth and was later found to have abnormalities in a blood test.

The bay was being prepared for his chasing debut at Limerick next weekend when he sustained the injury that will see him miss the new season but hopefully will not prevent him from returning next term.

“We were planning to run him in the beginners’ chase there at Limerick on Munster National Day, we just did a piece of work with him at the Curragh on Tuesday and he seemed to be fine,” Connell explained.

Good Land at Leopardstown (Niall Carson/PA)

“Then this morning we felt we were in a bit of difficulty, so we got the leg scanned and unfortunately he’s got a tendon injury.

“It’s treatable but he will be out for the season, we’re fairly hopeful we’ll have him back for next year.

“The treatment nowadays would entail controlled exercise, he’ll have his treatment then he’ll spend time on the walker and probably go out after a little while.

“It’s just one of these things, it usually tends to happen to the better horses rather than the lesser ones because of the nature of the competitions they’re running in – Grade One races at all the top meetings.

Trainer Barry Connell (Brian Lawless/PA)

“It’s unfortunate, it’s the first one of these we’ve had in quite some time. He had some issues in the past and we got him back successfully last year and he had a very good season and won his Grade One.

“He probably was a little under the weather at Cheltenham but we were delighted to have the season we had last year and with a bit of luck we’ll have him back.

“He’s seven now, eight next year, but he’s only very lightly raced so hopefully the prognosis is good and he can make a full recovery for next year.”