Simonsig, who has been off the course with a series of injuries since winning the 2013 Arkle Trophy at Cheltenham, will not race again until this autumn at the earliest after Nicky Henderson decided not to enter the grey for any of the feature events at Cheltenham’s Festival meeting in March.
Simonsig’s name was missing when entries were published on Thursday for both the Queen Mother Champion Chase, over the Arkle trip of two miles, and the Ryanair Chase, over two miles and five furlongs.
“We’ve pulled stumps for now,” Henderson said on Thursday. “I didn’t bother entering him and I can’t see there’s any reason rushing him back. We do still have the likes of Captain Conan and Finian’s Rainbow to return so hopefully we will be represented in one way or another. I’m sure the Game Spirit [Chase at Newbury on 7 February] will figure for one of them but Finian’s probably needs further than two miles nowadays.”
Sprinter Sacre, the favourite for the Queen Mother Champion Chase, is still expected to return to action in the Grade One Clarence House Chase at Ascot on Saturday week. “He’s still on course for Ascot,” Henderson said, “though I am keeping one eye on the weather.”
True Story, seen as a Derby contender for Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin operation last year before his defeat at odds-on in the Dante Stakes, made a promising start to his four-year-old career with an easy victory in the Listed Singspiel Stakes at Meydan on Thursday evening.
Ridden by James Doyle, who gave up his role as Prince Khalid Abdullah’s retained jockey to join Godolphin at the end of the 2014 season, True Story quickened three-and-a-quarter lengths clear of Mushreq in the nine-furlong event. The royal blue colours were out of the frame in the card’s feature event, however, as Outstrip, the 2013 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner, finished only 11th of 16 runners behind Smooth Surfer in the Group Two Al Maktoum Challenge Round 1, the first major event on Meydan’s new dirt surface.
The British Horseracing Authority said on Thursday that it will charge David Bridgwater with bringing racing into disrepute over comments which the trainer and former jockey made to the Guardian in the aftermath of a dramatic handicap chase at Ludlow on Wednesday.
Jake Launchbury, a 16-year-old amateur rider, was banned for 21 days by the Ludlow stewards after mistakenly trying to steer around the final fence when three lengths clear of his field. Launchbury, riding Bridgwater’s chaser Bally Sands, realised his error in time to jump the obstacle, but lost several lengths in the incident and finished only third.
Shortly after hearing details of Launchbury’s penalty, Bridgwater told the Guardian that his principal concern was for the wellbeing of his jockey, who was distraught at missing out on a first winner under Rules as a result of his mistake. Bridgwater added: “It was just a mistake. They asked me to go into the stewards’ room with him, and it was the same idiots there that were there when I was riding 20 years ago.
“He’s a 16-year-old kid, for God’s sake. He didn’t take the wrong course [and] he jumped the last fence. OK, give him a week’s ban or something, but to give him 21 days, I think they must still have been pissed from lunch.”
Robin Mounsey, the BHA’s media manager, said in a statement on Thursday evening: “The comments attributed to David Bridgwater in today’s Guardian are wholly unacceptable. No sporting regulatory body would tolerate their officials being described in such an unjustified and derogatory manner. BHA will be taking appropriate action on this matter.”
