The Cheltenham Festival lost its biggest star on Tuesday morning as Thistlecrack, the 7-4 favourite for the Timico Gold Cup, was ruled out for the rest of the season with a tendon injury. Last year’s Stayers’ Hurdle winner was deemed not quite right by trainer Colin Tizzard at evening stables on Monday and a scan on Tuesday confirmed his worst fears.
"He is out of the Gold Cup and won’t run again this season," said Tizzard. "He had heat in his leg last night. The vet scanned him this morning and it's a slight tendon tear."
Though still a novice over fences Thistlecrack took the senior chasing division by the scruff of the neck when routing his field in the King George at Kempton over Christmas, before suffering his first defeat of the season when going down narrowly to Many Clouds in the Cotswold Chase at Cheltenham at the end of last month.
Stablemate Native River has replaced Thistlecrack as 3-1 market leader for chasing’s most important prize with Betfred, Paddy Power and Boylesports. Another Tizzard charge, Cue Card, was initially cut to 4-1 but was soon trimmed further into a general 7-2.
