Jockeys Callum Shepherd and Joanna Mason are facing more time on the sidelines, having both recently just returned from injury.
Shepherd, who broke a wrist in November, aggravated his old injury when the Charlie Fellowes-trained Trois Vallees fell in a five-furlong handicap at Nottingham on Sunday.
He said: “I’ll be on the sofa for a little while. The horse sadly had a heart attack and the wrist started swelling up in one place, the same wrist I broke in November.
“It is fractured, but not too bad. The concern was it had opened up the old fracture again, but it hasn’t. I have a radial styloid fracture.
“It is hard to say when I will be back. I spoke to Dr Jerry Hill (the British Horseracing Authority’s chief medical officer), having sent him the X-ray. It is a case of getting a CAT scan to see the full extent of it, but I think it will be a case of weeks, rather than months. That seems to be the expectation at the moment. Hopefully, that will be the case.
“It’s a tough one, but at the same time it could be a lot worse – it’s not your spine or your head.”
Mason, who was sidelined for 10 days last month when kicked in the knee by Jazz Samba following his win at Beverley on May 1, faces a lengthy absence.
She suffered a leg fracture on Monday when three pigeons flew out of bushes adjacent to the gallops at her grandfather Mick and his son David Easterby’s , spooking a filly she was riding and unseating her.
Mason said: “I was riding a filly down the gallop and three pigeons flew out and she was just gone from underneath me.
“I just landed a bit funny on my ankle. I got up, hobbled down the gallop until my granddad picked me up. I put ice on it, went to Jack Berry House and they looked at it.
“I thought it was ligaments or a strain, I wasn’t really in much pain, so I thought I had stretched or whatever, but they said to go to Malton Hospital for an X-ray to rule everything out.
“It is a spiral fracture on my lower (distal) fibula. They say I’ll be off between four to six weeks, but I’m aiming for four.”
Adding insult to injury, Mason missed a winning ride on Menelaus, who took the mile-and-a-half handicap at Thirsk on Monday.
She added: “I was 10 days off after my knee was kicked at Beverley. I was getting on a roll and the horses are going well.
“But I feel like I’ve probably been quite lucky, because I’ve not had many injuries. Maybe it is just my time.
“My knee is still niggling me a little bit – there’s still quite a bit of swelling in it, but that’s the least of my worries now.”
Skelton edges in front of Mullins in epic trainers’ title tussle
Dan Skelton edged back to the top of the table for the British jumps trainers’ championship after a crucial treble at Ayr.
The Alcester trainer was a little shy of £31,000 adrift of Irish champion Willie Mullins on the leaderboard ahead of the meeting, the first day of the valuable Coral Scottish Grand National fixture which could prove so pivotal in the destination of the title, in which Paul Nicholls will also have a big say.
Shakeyatailfeather finished second in the Abbott Risk Consulting Mares’ Maiden Hurdle and Catch Him Derry landed the Get Home Safe With Thistle Cabs Handicap Hurdle as the 5-6 favourite to kick off Skelton’s afternoon, after which Punta Del Este outran odds of 25-1 to take the feature Coral “We’re Here For It” Handicap Hurdle, which was worth £16,338 to the winner.
Theformismighty finished fourth in the same race to add another £1,884 to the total, with Presenting Nelly duly providing another victory at 5-1 in division two of the GS Group ‘Hands & Heels’ Handicap Hurdle that brought the day to a close.
For that win she pocketed £5,281, putting Skelton back in front by just under £5,000 heading into Saturday, where he has 10 entries across Ayr and Bangor and when Mullins will play his hand with three horses in the Scottish Champion Hurdle and six in the Scottish Grand National.
Speaking to Racing TV after Punta Del Este’s win, Skelton said: “I’m sure all the mathematicians will be calculating it all, but tomorrow’s the important day for the championship.
“The three of us are in the Scottish Grand National and in all the races really, tomorrow will be a big day.
“It’s a privilege to have the owners come up here and be looked after Ayr, the track is always in as good condition as it can be and given the winter we’ve had I think they’ve done a great job with that.
“Every course has its unique atmosphere and the Scottish Grand National is unique indeed.
“L’Eau Du Sud is the obvious one for the Scottish Champion Hurdle, he’s the favourite for the race after a very good run at Cheltenham.
Nicholls, meanwhile, claimed his share of the prize-money on offer to keep himself competitive ahead of the two big weekends to come, with the season drawing to a close at Sandown in a week’s time.
Nicholls was in fact the first trainer to strike a blow at Ayr as Outlaw Peter won the Hillhouse Quarry Handicap Chase under Harry Cobden as the 7-2 joint-favourite.
Nicholls also took home some of place money on offer, with Beau Balko finishing third in the Seko Logistics Scotland Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase and Don’t Tell Su the runner-up of the GS Group “Hands & Heels” Handicap Hurdle.
Arrest expected to make his mark as a four-year-old
Kieran Shoemark is relishing stepping into the boots of Frankie Dettori aboard Arrest, as the St Leger runner-up makes his return in the Dubai Duty Free Finest Surprise Stakes at Newbury.
Arrest played a key role in Dettori’s UK swansong last season and was a beaten favourite for the Italian’s final Derby ride at Epsom, before just failing to send the 53-year-old off in a blaze of Classic glory when second to Continuous at Doncaster in September.
Shoemark was three places behind Arrest with Gregory on Town Moor, but having taken the reins aboard many of John and Thady Gosden’s star Clarehaven inmates since the relocation of Dettori to California, he will get the leg-up aboard Arrest for the first time on Saturday afternoon.
The 28-year-old hopes the soft-ground loving colt can build on his positive finish to last season and feels there is plenty of improvement to be seen during his four-year-old campaign.
“He’s obviously a big horse and hopefully he’s going to improve with age,” said Shoemark.
“Hopefully the ground is not going to dry out too much at Newbury and we know he wants soft ground.
“His run in the Leger was brilliant – the ground went against me on Gregory, but he enjoyed it. He’s a proper mile-and-a-half horse, not short of speed by all means, and the softer the better for him.
“He’s a big, strapping horse and I honestly believe he will get better with age. He’s entitled to, so there will be plenty to look forward to for the year ahead.”
As well as winning the Chester Vase, Arrest’s other victory last term came at Newbury in the Geoffrey Freer Stakes and joint-trainer Thady Gosden is confident the race more commonly known as the John Porter is the ideal spot to kick-start the son of Frankel’s season.
“He’s a very talented horse, he ran great last year and was second in a Classic,” he said.
“He’s developed very well over the winter and is a horse of great size and quality and he’s really filled into his frame and has been really pleasing leading into this race.
“He doesn’t mind getting his toe in at all and the track and trip should suit.”
Arrest will be in receipt of 3lb from William Haggas’ Hamish, who went through 2023 unbeaten, winning on four occasions, all at Group Three level.
Hamish is one of two in the race for the Somerville Lodge handler alongside Mujtaba, but main hopes lie with the stable stalwart, who is owned by the trainer’s father, Brian, and got the better of Karl Burke’s Al Qareem on his final start of last year in the rearranged St Simon Stakes.
The Spigot Lodge-trained five-year-old is another slated to concede weight to Arrest and his trainer is excited to get Al Qareem back on track.
Burke said: “I’m looking forward to seeing him run and he’s been ready to run for the last month.
“He’s working well, a mile and a half is his minimum trip, but on this ground I’m happy to start him off there.
“He’ll step up and be a good one-mile-six and two-mile horse later in the year. It’ll be a tough race, but I think he’ll run really well.
“We were lucky to keep him and he got travel sickness coming back (from Dubai). He’s hard work at home, Danielle Mooney rides him every day and he pulls her arms out every day, but he’s a lovely horse to have.”
Simon and Ed Crisford’s Chesspiece was behind Arrest when sixth in the Leger before finishing off his season with a silver medal in the Listed Noel Murless Stakes at Ascot.
He makes his first start after being gelded in the royal blue of Godolphin, while Andrew Balding’s Alsakib steps out of handicap company after finishing last year on a real high on home soil.
Max Vega won this in 2022 and having finished third last season, returns for a third crack, while trainer Ralph Beckett is also represented by Salt Bay.
Last year’s Irish Derby fourth Peking Opera makes his first Flat outing for Gary Moore, having been seen juvenile hurdling this winter, with Jack Channon’s Certain Lad completing the line-up.
Maximus respect for Grand National hero at homecoming parade
It is likely to be the Cheltenham Gold Cup rather than a Grand National repeat that is on the agenda for I Am Maximus next season, as Willie Mullins sees his Aintree hero as the perfect candidate for the Cheltenham Festival blue riband.
It is barely a month since Galopin Des Champs enjoyed receiving the adulation of the locals after providing the master of Closutton with his fourth Gold Cup triumph and I Am Maximus appears set to be trained with the Cotswolds in mind as it was his turn to be paraded through the streets of Leighlinbridge in County Carlow on Tuesday evening.
The eight-year-old was sent off the 7-1 joint favourite for the Aintree showpiece after impressing in the Bobbyjo Chase in February and provided the perennial Irish champion with his second victory in the world’s most famous steeplechase, 19 years after he triumphed with Hedgehunter in 2005.
However, it may have to be one of his stablemates who bids to mark the 20th anniversary of that first National success with another win in Liverpool, as I Am Maximus is set to join Mullins’ swelling Gold Cup hand that includes the likes of dual winner Galopin Des Champs and high-class novice Fact To File.
“I Am Maximus is definitely a Gold Cup horse and I couldn’t see much point in going back to Aintree again,” said Mullins.
“I’ll be training him for the Gold Cup anyway.”
Mullins also gave his seal of approval to the array of alterations to the Merseyside race, which led to no fallers and the highest number of finishers since 2005 – with all of the handler’s eight-strong team leaving Aintree unscathed.
“We live in different times and nothing stays the same, everything changes,” continued Mullins.
“When you go back many years ago, the National was dead on its feet and Aintree was going to be sold and it was saved.
“You have to change and go with the present day. Today, we have a £1million National and there was a huge amount of people going to Aintree over the three days and it was special what they did – and there will be the odd tweaks and turns every now and then.”
I Am Maximus was given a masterful ride by Paul Townend, who became the first man in 94 years to win the Champion Hurdle, Cheltenham Gold Cup and Grand National in the same season.
However, the son of Authorized’s seven-and-a-half-length romp over Delta Work also put Mullins in pole position to create his own piece of history and become the first Irish-based handler since the great Vincent O’Brien in the 1950s to claim the UK jumps trainers’ championship.
The 67-year-old has got a multitude of entries for Ayr’s two-day Scottish Grand National meeting, as he attempts to beat Dan Skelton and Paul Nicholls to the title, and is set to be mob-handed in the £200,000 feature after confirming a possible six runners for the four-mile marathon.
“It’s never been an ambition because one does not have those ambitions, they are not real,” he said of his tittle bid.
“We find ourselves in this position and hopefully we will go close and I suppose now that we are so near, you want it more when you are so near.
“We’ve done lots of entries and I would say Mr Incredible will run and Macdermott will run in the big one at Ayr and hopefully we will have two or three to go with them.
“At this point in time, we’ve just got plenty of entries and we will see how the horses are during the week before we send them on their way.”
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