After an outbreak in recent weeks across the Nicky Henderson stable, that forced Constitution Hill to pull out of the Festival, Shishkin is the latest horse to be withdrawn from the Gold Cup.
An unsatisfactory performance from Henderson trained horses yesterday, which saw all but one of his horses pull up before the finish, left the trainer and his crew questioning the health of all his horses.
Shishkin has two Festival wins under his belt in 2020, and 2021. Before pulling up in the 2022 edition, and finishing second in the Ryanair Chase last year.
The horse was expected to make his Gold Cup debut this Friday, but after being scoped along with the rest of Henderson’s runner, the picture came back unfavourable, and the decision to pull him from Friday’s main event has been made.
“Very sadly it will not be possible for Shishkin to run in the Gold Cup on Friday” read a statement from Henderson’s twitter account, “He was scoped as have all our potential runners this week, but unfortunately he has shown an unsatisfactory picture”
Statement from Nicky Henderson pic.twitter.com/zZAPCZNUaT
— Nicky Henderson (@sevenbarrows) March 13, 2024
This is the fifth horse of Henderson’s to be pulled out this morning.
Jonbon, First Street, and Kingston Pride have all been pulled from races today, while Regrettably Champ has also had poor scope results and will not run on Thursday.
