Racing: Sackville's Gold Cup aim falls by the wayside

National Hunt racing is a crushing game, a game in which there always seems to be a problem with either the board or the pieces.

Just as competition on turf returns to normal, the injuries to the top players start to pile up. Florida Pearl will not be lonely in the Irish sick bay this weekend following the revelation that his fellow Gold Cup aspirant Sackville has damaged a leg and is already struggling to make the Cheltenham Festival.

The 10-year-old, who is trained by Frances Crowley, unseated his amateur rider, Gareth Power, at the first of two fences after completing a two-mile exercise with stable companion Moscow Express at Gowran Park yesterday.

The horses approached the fence together and Sackville hit it hard. He clipped the top, unshipped Power, his regular schooling partner, and sustained a nasty cut. He ran loose before coming to a standstill at the next fence and was taken for treatment at a veterinary practice at the Curragh.

"It's an overreach on the near fore. It's a nasty cut but at least it's not a tendon," Crowley said. "This means he won't be running anywhere in the immediate future, which is a great pity as he seemed to be in such good form at home."

Another absentee for now is Willie Mullins's Florida Pearl, who did not scope clear this week. Mullins is still keen to test his 11-year-old over a trip shorter than three miles as he explores all his options ahead of the Festival. "It's too early to say when he will run, but I would imagine that this won't hold him up for more than 10 days to a fortnight," he said.

"There's the Ritz Club Ascot Chase on 15 February, but I am going to look at the options with a view to seeing how he gets on over a shorter trip. The plan is still the Gold Cup, but the Champion Chase is a possible."

There are, at the same time, the good luck stories. Josh Gifford's Kopeck has risen, if not Lazarus like, then rather sharply, from a brief bout of coughing to put himself back in line for the Tolworth Hurdle at Wincanton tomorrow. The brother to Gifford's ill-fated Rouble appeared to have ruled himself out of the race as he spluttered after exercise on Wednesday. But the big horse came through his work yesterday and is now almost certain to continue an education which could even culminate in the Champion Hurdle in March.

"We'll keep an eye on him tomorrow," Gifford said. "He's far too valuable a horse for us to take any chances with."

There will also be a final check-up this morning for The Bajan Bandit, whose trainer, Len Lungo, will monitor both the horse and ground before deciding whether to commit to Haydock or Kempton tomorrow.

The Carrutherstown trainer wants the best going possible for the eight-year-old, unbeaten in two novice chases this season, as the countdown begins to the Festival.

It was soft yesterday at Haydock, where The Bajan Bandit is engaged over two and three-quarter miles. The three-mile Sunbury Novices' Chase would be the target at Kempton, where the going is good to soft.

"The horse is effective on heavy but I don't want to run him on it because I don't want to bottom him," Lungo said. "I'm just trying to keep a bit of freshness with Cheltenham in mind."

Lungo also has Skippers Cleuch entered in both tomorrow's contests but plans to re-route the nine-year-old to Wetherby on Monday. "He's had a nice holiday since he won at Wetherby," he said. "We're just looking for the right race now and trying to get both of them to Cheltenham."

However, Lungo gave a warning to punters considering backing either horse ante-post. "I don't know which race they will run in," he said. "They will both be entered in the Royal & SunAlliance Chase and the Cathcart Chase, and The Bajan Bandit will also have an entry for the Stayers' Hurdle."