Ferny Hollow set to miss Cheltenham with suspected stress fracture

PA Sport Reporters
December 20, 2020 1:30 pm

Champion Bumper hero made winning start over hurdles last month.

Last season’s Champion Bumper hero Ferny Hollow is set to miss the Cheltenham Festival due to injury.

The Cheveley Park Stud-owned gelding stormed up the famous hill to provide trainer Willie Mullins with a 10th Champion Bumper success in March and made a fine start to his career over hurdles when seeing off subsequent winner Bob Olinger at Gowran Park last month.

However, the five-year-old was not entered to run over the Christmas period and connections have now confirmed he will miss much of the current campaign, if not all.

Chris Richardson, managing director of owners Cheveley Park Stud, said: “It’s really frustrating. We’re still not really sure what the problem is, but it looks like a stress fracture behind.

“We’re sort of investigating as we go forward. Willie said he’s not right and obviously I’m not able to go over and see him because we’re all stuck where we are.

“It’s a shame. He’ll probably miss Cheltenham and we’ll hopefully know more in a couple of weeks’ time on whether we might get him back for Punchestown when we X-ray him again.

“We’re lucky that we’ve got a few of these other horses that have been running so well, but we were really looking forward to him.”