Sport

Injury forces Sound Man out of Champion Chase

SOUND MAN will miss the Queen Mother Champion Chase a fortnight today

Wed Feb 26 1997 - 00:00

SOUND MAN will miss the Queen Mother Champion Chase a fortnight today. Edward O'Grady yesterday revealed that the gelding has suffered a setback and will not be able to contest the two-mile Cheltenham contest in which he was a beaten favourite last year.

Speaking at the Guinness Cheltenham Festival lunch in Dublin, the trainer said: "Sound Man was lame on his near-hind after exercise on Sunday morning.

"He has not been sound since and having consulted with the owners we regrettably decided to withdraw him from the Queen Mother Champion Chase. There is no decision yet as to whether he will race again this season. We don't know enough about the injury."

Sound Man, who had been quoted at 6 to 1 for the Cheltenham race by Ladbrokes, won the Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown last December but was a modest third behind Strong Promise in the Comet Chase at Ascot on his latest start.

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O'Grady will still have two runners at the Festival, a meeting at which he has sent out 15 winners since 1974. He will have Time For A Run in either the Astec Buzz Shop Chase or Kim Muir Chase and What A Hand (the mount of Philip Fenton) in the Christies Foxhunter Hunters' Chase.

Ladbrokes responded to news by cutting the price of last year's winner Klairon Davis from 9 to 4 favourite to 15 to 8. Viking Flagship, seeking his third win in the race, is now 5 to 2 second favourite with both Ladbrokes and William Hill.

Jessica Harrington will not discover until later this week whether Leopardstown will rearrange its running order on Sunday to suit her Space Trucker.

The trainer has asked the course to bring the Bannockstown Handicap Hurdle forward from its scheduled 4.0 p.m. start time, so that her Champion Hurdle hope will not have to race on ground churned up in previous races.

Leopardstown manager Tom Burke said yesterday: "We are considering it at the moment and trying to accommodate the situation. There is another scratching stage on Thursday and we won't decide before then. And we don't have to decide finally until Friday morning."

If he runs on Sunday, Space Trucker, quoted at 9 to 1 by Ladbrokes for the Smurfit Champion Hurdle next Tuesday week, will be having his first outing since he landed the `Fighting Fifth' Hurdle at Newcastle in November.