Henderson hoping to get Charli Parcs to meeting despite fall

Charli Parcs remains in contention to run at the Cheltenham Festival despite the fall which robbed him of another chance to demonstrate his JCB Triumph Hurdle potential.

The highly rated juvenile hurdler left connections wondering what might have been when he came down at the second-last flight of the Adonis Hurdle at Kempton.

He was being urged along three from home but was mounting a challenge when he crashed out. As Barry Geraghty, who was ruled out of the festival as a result of the fall, has been unable to give his verdict on whether Charli Parcs would have beaten the impressive Master Blueyes.

The JP McManus-owned Charli Parcs is a best-priced 14-1 for the Triumph Hurdle, with Betfair Sportsbook, having been 7-1 on Saturday.

Henderson said yesterday: "Charli Parcs is okay. I have no idea what we'll do. I'd like to speak to Barry more than anything else. He can tell us a bit more about what was happening. We can only read into it what we were looking at.

"Charli Parcs is funny. When Noel Fehily rode him the first time at Kempton he said there was a patch down the back straight where he wasn't travelling like the good horse we thought he was. All of a sudden he pulled him out, gave him a squeeze and he took off.

"On Saturday when he came off the bend he was five or six lengths down but he picked up and by the time they got to the second-last he had joined them and was coming through like a bullet. It looked as if he was suddenly going to pick up and go. Until we talk to Barry we won't know.

"We can't say what we'll do. Possibly a bigger track would help him. It was only the third race of his life. He's a very slick hurdler and that was unfortunate. He came in long and low and just clipped the top. I’ll discuss plans with JP [McManus] but Cheltenham is still possible.”

The mishaps to Charli Parcs and Geraghty occurred during a testing day for Henderson who had to retire Triolo D'Alene after he pulled up injured in the BetBright Chase in which his other runner Cocktails At Dawn took a heavy fall. River Wylde provided the only relief winning the Grade 2 Dovecote Novices Hurdle.

"It was a bit of a brutal one," the trainer said. "Triolo D'Alene is all right. He's at Scott Dunns [equine clinic] but he is in good hands. He has a fracture in the pelvic region. He will be retired.

"He has been a great servant, a lovely, lovely horse. He won a Hennessy and a Topham and a number of other things. He has given us and Sandy and Caroline Orr a huge amount of fun so has well earned a great retirement.

"Cocktails At Dawn is sore behind but he is okay. That wasn't a nice fall. He was quite sore last night but no too bad this morning - stiff but no damage."