Dessie Hughes’ Minsk out of the Cheltenham Festival
Dessie Hughes’ trained horse, Minsk, will miss the Cheltenham Festival following a throat infection. He was lined up for the JCB Triumph Hurdle Grade 1 in England, which was scheduled to take place on Friday, March 16, 2012.
The four-year-old gelding had earned a general starting price of 12 to 1, but will not be able to take part in the rest of the season due to a setback. He has taken part in one hurdle so far and ended up delivering a decent result in it, finishing second.
Due to this, Minsk was expected to be one of the strong contenders of winning the Cheltenham event. However, his trainer was disappointed after learning about the injury to his horse.
Minsk’s owner, Barry Connell, was also dejected after hearing the news of a setback to his horse. He claimed that he was really looking forward to the Cheltenham Festival, but there were no chances of his horse taking part in that event now.
According to Connell, “Dessie rang me yesterday evening and said that the horse had an inflamed throat and that would mean the beginning of an infection. Dessie rang me yesterday evening and said that the horse had an inflamed throat and that would mean
the beginning of an infection.”
He went onto say that he was pleased on how his owned horse had been performing since making debut in the sport. He hoped that the four-year-old gelding would recover soon and make a comeback towards the end of this year.
Commenting on the comeback plans of Minsk, Connell said, “The plan is the Irish Leger. He will likely have one or two races before that but it would be a great race to go for and he is not exposed on the Flat. After that, he'll return to Dessie Hughes as
a novice and will be aimed at the better races over two miles and two and a half miles.”
The Cheltenham triumph Hurdle has attracted 77 runners until now and the favourite horse to win the event is Grumeti. He has entered four hurdles in his career, winning three of them. Therefore, he has been awarded with a general starting price of 9 to 2
for the event.
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