Supreme Novices' favourite Annamix out for the season

Annamix, the 10-1 ante-post favourite for the SkyBet Supreme Novices' Hurdle next March, is out for the season.

The Willie Mullins-trained and Rich Ricci-owned four-year-old had been as short as 8-1 for the Cheltenham Festival curtain-raiser, and had been entered for a maiden hurdle at Thurles on Thursday.

Speaking on At The Races' On The Line programme on Monday evening, Ricci revealed: "He was lame after working on Saturday and we had him looked at today and he's got a pelvis injury."

He added: "He's only four and the prognosis is excellent, but unfortunately he'll be out for the season which is devastating for us and the yard, but hopefully we'll have somebody to pick up the slack."

The French recruit, who finished second in a Vichy hurdle in September 2016, was described as "probably the pick of our novice team" by the leading owner.

Ricci explained: "I want to be as transparent as I can be and unfortunately Annamix will not be running this season. Hopefully he'll be the favourite for the Supreme next year.

"We only learned about it this afternoon and I wanted to tell punters as we knew. It's unfortunate, but these things happen and it's not a leg, we've come back from these – Douvan came back from this – it's going to be fine in terms of the prognosis."

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