Champ back on track after Henderson team clear local Co-op out of frozen peas

Frozen peas have helped to get RSA Chase favourite Champ back on track after his fall at Cheltenham on New Year's Day, with trainer Nicky Henderson pleased to be able to get a saddle back on him on Saturday morning.

Champ, a dual Grade 1 winner as a novice hurdler, looked set to make it three out of three over fences in the Grade 2 Dipper Novices' Chase on Wednesday only to take a heavy fall when leading two fences from home.

Stiff and sore in his shoulder after that incident, Champ was put on the road to recovery after Henderson's wife Sophie raided the freezer section at the local Co-op store.

"We had a saddle on Champ this morning and he was good," said the trainer at Sandown on Saturday. "He was sore a couple of hours after the race but the vets got on top of it.

"By the time he got home he was pretty good and Sophie went into the village and there was a run on frozen peas in the Co-op. Outside his stable there's an icebox and we had hundreds of packs of peas in it.

"You can't put the packs against the skin because that would burn it, so we put them in a sling over the shoulder and every time a pack thawed out we replaced it. They did an x-ray of the shoulder and there was nothing there but we knew the point they were looking at and that's where we targeted the frozen peas."

The Reynoldstown Chase at Ascot on February 15 remains a potential next target for Champ, who is a best-priced 4-1 favourite for the RSA with Betfair Sportsbook and Paddy Power.

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