Dan Skelton presses pause on Shan Blue's season with spring return the plan

Dan Skelton has revealed Shan Blue will miss potential winter targets such as the Ladbrokes Trophy at Newbury and the King George VI at Kempton and will instead be waited with until the spring in order to protect the horse’s long-term chasing prospects.

The seven-year-old was set to be a runaway winner of the Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby on Saturday before falling at the third-last when over 15 lengths clear of his nearest rival.

Paddy Power had slashed Shan Blue's odds to 12-1 from 66-1 for Newbury's Ladbrokes Trophy at the end of the month off the back of the performance.

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Shan Blue was also cut to 8-1 from 25-1 for the King George VI Chase in December, but he will not be taking in either race following Skelton's announcement on Twitter on Tuesday morning.

Skelton said "We’ve given him a full check over. He is a bit stiff in his neck and speaking to the vets and his owner Colm [Donlon] we’ve decided we’re going to back off for a month completely and get all of the soreness out of his neck.

"He’s not horrendously sore or anything, but he’s just a little bit sore at the flex. We’re just going to give him the time that he needs, so we’ll back off completely for a month and restart.

"It does mean that we’re going to miss both the Ladbrokes Trophy and the King George but he’s a young horse, we’ve got to do the right thing by him. He’s not an old horse at all and you can see him having a long career over fences and we just want to have him 100 per cent right when we go.

"So we’re going to back off him for now and have him ready for the spring, Cheltenham and Aintree. We've just got to do the right thing by the horse. Sometimes with horses when you try and make it happen you’re chasing and when you’re chasing that’s when results don’t go your way and things start going against you.

"We’ll give him the time he needs, get him 100 per cent right and you’ll see him in the spring.”

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