Connections highly anxious for the comeback of Imperial Commander
Just when the eleven-year-old bay gelding, Imperial Commander, was up for the debut outing of the 2012 season, he incurred a rather serious injury that has culminated into his withdrawal from the line-up of the Saturday’s Betfair Chase at Haydock. It is a fracture in a splint bone in a hind leg.
It is not the first time for the Nigel Twiston-Davies trained that he missed his goal due to an injury. The 2011 edition of the Cheltenham Cup ended with the Laurence J Flynn bred getting side lined with a tendon injury.
The gelding has been racing since the last seven seasons, and the opportunities for him are scaling down not only due to the age, but also the injuries that he keeps enduring at rather regular intervals.
Flemensfirth’s bay gelding will turn twelve this New Year and the connections want to see him racing as soon as the fresh season kicks in.
Luckily, for the gelding and his connections, he did not leave the racing venues owing to decline in his form or performance, rather his very last success was in a Grade 1 event. Taking a break with injuries coupled with rumours of his fading form would have been just the ingredients for a career failure.
The Irish bay gelding won the Grade 1 Betfair Chase (Registered as the Lancashire Chase) on 20th November, 2010 at Haydock over three miles.
The favourite entry defeated Tidal Bay by 1 ¼ lengths. The runner-up now is under the supervision of trainer, Paul Nicholls.
Twiston-Davies said: ‘He's suffered a small fracture of a splint bone in a hind leg unfortunately. It's nothing dramatic but it means he won't be in full work for around six weeks.
‘We can still do swimming with him and things like that. It's disappointing but these things happen."
‘We'll see how we get on but the obvious race for him when he comes back is the race at Cheltenham in January (Argento Chase).’
Imperial Commander was set full swing for the challenge as he was also working out rigorously, but the stars were just not shining bright enough.
“Imperial worked over two miles with an unraced four-year-old bumper horse who is very highly regarded, finishing upsides and showing plenty of enthusiasm.”
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