Cheltenham Festival winner to return next month with possible Gold Cup bid in his sights

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Cheltenham Festival winner Myretown, an expensive faller at Newbury last month, is to return in January when a big run could earn him a crack at the Boodles Gold Cup.

He has been out of action since falling at the ninth fence in the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury, where he was backed down to 4-1 favourite in a field of 24.

"Myretown was quite lame on his right fore after his fall at Newbury," Lucinda Russell said. "Normally, we get them back cantering within a week but he went lame again, so we bone-scanned him just to be sure. He's absolutely fine and back in work."

Outlining plans for a horse who landed the Ultima Handicap Chase by 11 lengths at Cheltenham last spring, the joint-trainer said: "He could go to Kelso on January 11 or to Haydock for the Peter Marsh on January 17, and there's also the Classic Chase at Warwick on January 10.

"We'll decide what he does after that. If he was good enough to go for the Gold Cup, I'd love to do that. If he wasn't, he might go back for the Ultima."

Stablemate Derryhassen Paddy, who finished third in the Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle three days after Myretown's festival win, looks set to miss the rest of the season.

Derryhassen Paddy (left): likely to miss the rest of the seasonCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

He made a couple of jumping errors when second of three on his chasing debut at Ayr last month and Russell said: "He was lame afterwards and he's had a screw put in his cannon bone, just to be on the safe side.

"We x-rayed and x-rayed and there was no crack, but we then had an MRI and there was just the start of a crack."

The trainer has made no secret of the regard she has for a horse she hailed as "phenomenal" after he won at the Windsor's Winter Million festival last January.

"He's starting on the walker now. He'd be cantering in March or April, so we could possibly take him to Punchestown, but I suspect he'll be back in the autumn," she said.

"It's frustrating but we don't want to take any chances. We're being proactive rather than reactive and he should come back as good as ever."

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