Blow for Butler as Trafford is ruled out

RACING NEWS ROUND-UP:LAR BUTLER has been dealt a blow with the news that Trafford Lad is likely to be out of action for the rest of the season.

The seven-year-old suffered a setback that ruled him out of the Hennessy Gold Cup but he was expected to be back in action in the new year. However, Butler, who is only in his first season training, is playing it safe with his stable star, who finished third at Naas on his only run of the year behind Tranquil Sea and Joncol, form which has turned out to be red hot. “He’s back walking. He’s going on a walking programme for the next six weeks and we’ll be scanning him at the end of that,” said Butler.

“It’s going to be a lot longer than we originally thought but we are not going to rush him. We have to give him time. If he’s right after that six weeks we can start training him again, but we have to take into consideration how long he’ll have been out so realistically we’d be looking at Punchestown and the ground would probably be too quick by then.

“At this stage it is probably looking like he will miss the rest of the season. It’s heartbreaking, but that’s racing. I was happy enough after Naas, but the next morning I felt a slight bit of heat in a leg, although it looked and felt perfect.

“We were struggling to get it out of it and when the time came to step up his training for the Hennessy I just wasn’t happy so we had it scanned and I’m glad I did.”

Garde Champetre will be without regular partner Nina Carberry as he bids for his fifth win over Cheltenham’s cross-country fences today. Enda Bolger’s popular 10-year-old once again proved too strong for his rivals at last month’s Open meeting and will have to concede upwards of 11lb all round in the Glenfarclas Cross Country Handicap Chase.

Bolger’s Heads Onthe Ground was runner-up to his stablemate a month ago under JT McNamara, but the weights for today’s race mean the jockeys have been switched. “JT can’t do the weight on Heads Onthe Ground (10st 4lb) so it makes sense for him to ride Garde Champetre and Nina to switch to the other horse,” said Bolger.