Pauling stable star ruled out for season with injury

Ben Pauling's stable star Barters Hill has been ruled out for the rest of the season with the injury he sustained at Cheltenham's Open meeting, but the trainer is hopeful the six-year-old will return next year.

Barters Hill slipped a tendon off a hock on his chase debut, and will undergo surgery in a bid to return to the track.

However, Pauling thinks Barters Hill can overcome the odds, and said: "Any horse that has a tendon slip off their hock, the prognosis isn't great. It's always going to be bit of a 50-50 chance.

"We're devastated that we and the owners have lost our flagbearer for the moment, but we're very positive that if any horse will come back from it, he will.

"He's a very tough horse, but also a very sensible, easy-going horse. He'll give himself every chance. We've got every confidence that we've lost him only for a year and that he will be back and be at the top again one day."

Prior to his chasing debut last month, Barters Hill had been beaten only once in eight starts when finishing fourth behind Unowhatimeanharry in the Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in March.