Myretown given clean bill of health following Newbury fall

A Boxing Day trip to Wetherby has been pencilled in for Myretown after he returned to Scotland relatively unscathed following his crashing fall in the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury on Saturday.

Having rounded off last season with a brilliant victory in the Ultima Handicap Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, the eight-year-old was the 4-1 favourite to claim another big-race victory on his return to action and was leading the way until coming to grief at the ninth fence.

Connections were left wondering what might have been, with Cheltenham runner-up The Changing Man not beaten far into third place – and while there was some concern in the immediate aftermath that Myretown had suffered a shoulder injury and he left the racecourse to be examined further, he made the long trip home on Sunday and appears to be none the worse.

Michael Scudamore, who trains Myretown in partnership with Lucinda Russell, said on Tuesday: “He’s back being ridden again. There’s just a bit of bruising (on his shoulder), but he’s absolutely A1 and back into exercise.

“It was obviously frustrating, as you want to know where you are and how good you are, but the positives are his form has worked out well and I’d certainly like to think he wouldn’t have been far away, which gives us confidence for the future.”

While keen not to commit to future plans, Scudamore confirmed the William Hill Rowland Meyrick Handicap Chase as a potential next objective, adding: “That gives him plenty of time between the two races. We’ll see how he is, but it would just be nice to get a confidence run into him and then hopefully we can build and go forward from there.

“The important thing is that he’s come back well, we’ve got plenty of options, so we’ll regroup, decide where is best to go and try to find the answers.”

The Kinross handler also had news of Derryhassen Paddy, who finished third in the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham in March but was far from fluent in the jumping department when beaten by Sixmilebridge on his chasing debut at Ayr last month.

“It didn’t go entirely to plan, albeit he was probably beaten by a good horse,” said Scudamore.

“We’ve got no real plans at the moment. We’re just regrouping, letting him recharge, we’ll get some more schooling into him and see what the best route is.

“Last year he probably looked a little bit lacklustre when he ran first time out. He hadn’t been away or galloped before he went to Ayr and maybe he was just a little bit lacklustre as his schooling had been very good, but he did look very rusty.

“Hopefully he’ll take a big step forward and we hope he can do it next time.”