Gordon forced to take David’s Well blow on the chin

Chris Gordon will turn his attention to next year with David’s Well after the seven-year-old was ruled out of the Grand Annual at the Cheltenham Festival by injury.

The seven-year-old is unbeaten over fences, winning at Leicester and Chepstow last season and after stepping up in class won at Haydock before again coming out on top in a valuable Cheltenham handicap in December.

He had been a 10-1 chance at the big meeting, but plans have now been put to bed until next season following a leg injury.

Gordon said: “He’s sadly out of the Grand Annual. He’s got a small crack to his femur behind so sadly that rules him out, but he’ll be as right as rain for next season and that’s the most important thing.

“It’s a hairline crack and it’s one of the least things you can do! That’s a real killer for us, as you can imagine.

“He’s been smashing. He won his two chases last year and his two chases this year. We were really looking forward to it, he’s been in great order.

“He just went a little bit off last week and we just thought we must investigate what’s going on. We were just lucky we found a small crack there so that’s put paid to us but we’ll be looking forward to next season.”

He added: “We’ll take our time and see how we go. Obviously he’s a softer-ground horse and hopefully we’ll kick off in time for some nice races.”