Shishkin has rare bone condition; Death Duty to run in Grand National
- Published
Shishkin had been unbeaten in seven previous starts over fences before Cheltenham
Racehorse Shishkin has a "rare bone condition" which has ruled him out of the upcoming Sandown finale, trainer Nicky Henderson has revealed.
The condition was found after the eight-year-old pulled up in the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham.
Henderson initially put the performance down to testing conditions following torrential rain.
The trainer added that Shishkin is expected to resume racing, potentially for the start of next season.
Talking about the process for diagnosing the condition, Henderson told Unibet: "He was lame for a couple of days and then he was sound. We weren't quite sure where he was.
"Initially we put it down to the ground, but I think in our heart of hearts we knew that wasn't the whole thing - there was something else that was bugging us.
"We dug and dug until we could come up with something. There was nothing obvious, but he was intermittently lame on different legs, which seemed rather strange.
"We recently did a bone scan on his whole body and that would normally show you the one hotspot and tell you where the lameness is. On this, four different hotspots came up in completely different places."
Shishkin had been favourite leading into the Champion Chase, the loss only the second of his 13-race career and would have been heavily fancied for the Celebration Chase at Sandown on 23 April.
"He has what you would have to call a pretty rare bone condition," Henderson added.
"Why on earth he should all of a sudden do this on the day of the Champion Chase, goodness only knows, but that's the first day it affected him - he'd never taken a lame step the whole way through his preparation."
Henderson does though expect Shishkin to make a full recovery, saying: "It is a very strange problem, but it's something that's very mendable. He's going to have a month's box rest, then a month's walking and then we'll turn him out in the field.
"There is absolutely no reason why he won't be ready for the beginning of next season. Once the bone has stopped this development in these four identifiable areas, that'll be the end of it.
"As long as he's alright for next season, that's all that matters."
Death Duty to run in Grand National
Meanwhile, trainer Gordon Elliott plans to replace Battleoverdoyen with Death Duty in Saturday's Grand National.
Death Duty is 41 on the list of runners, with a maximum of 40 allowed to line up and he will be one of eight Elliott contenders.
Battleoverdoyen will run in Friday's Topham Chase at Aintree instead.