NICKY HENDERSON has confirmed ‘dreadful news’ at Cheltenham – with the world’s most expensive jumps horse OUT of the Festival.
Palladium, a £1.2million purchase by Lord and Lady Bamford of JCB fame, was due to run in Friday’s Triumph Hurdle, a race they sponsor.
He had been around a 14-1 chance in the prestigious Grade 1, with the form of his debut hurdles win being franked.
But Henderson, who suffered a disastrous Cheltenham last year, said there was no way he could run this year due to the injury.
It is the second big blow for the master trainer after he was forced to rule huge Arkle favourite Sir Gino out too.
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Henderson said in a statement: “We have had quite a blow this morning when it appears that Palladium had got cast overnight and is quite sore this morning and we really can’t see how he can be fit to run in the JCB Triumph Hurdle.
“This is dreadful news and an unfair shock for the Bamford family as we seriously thought we had an outstanding chance on Friday.
“We are confident he will soon be able to resume training but he will require a few easy days.
“He would be back in time for Aintree but I think in all probability he will now return to his flat career.
“He is a very good looking and talented young horse with a great temperament and he has a really bright future under both codes.”
Henderson previously said there’s a good chance Palladium is moved to a different trainer to continue his Flat career, with the Melbourne Cup the ultimate goal.
[bc_video account_id=”5067014667001″ application_id=”” aspect_ratio=”16:9″ autoplay=”” caption=”‘Nothing pretty about it’ – Nicky Henderson’s world-record jumps horse wins on debut” embed=”in-page” experience_id=”” height=”100%” language_detection=”” max_height=”360px” max_width=”640px” min_width=”0px” mute=”” padding_top=”56%” picture_in_picture=”” player_id=”default” playlist_id=”” playsinline=”” sizing=”responsive” video_id=”6367559619112″ video_ids=”” width=”640px”]So this could have been the final time Palladium would have run under Hendo.
Fortunately he still has a strong hand in the Triumph.
[authenticated-scripts src=”%3Cscript%20class%3D%22palin-poll%22%20src%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thesun.co.uk%2Fpollingwidgets%2Fv3%2Fwidget.js%3Fquestion_id%3D109008%26game%3Dpolling%22%3E%3C%2Fscript%3E” type=”embedded” width=”100″ /]Lulamba was awesome on his first run for Henderson at Ascot in January.
He showed everything you’d want in a juvenile hurdler under a top class ride from Nico de Boinville.
The Joe and Marie Donnelly-owned potential superstar is a best-price 9-4 for the Triumph, behind other Brit rival and 13-8 market leader East India Dock.