West Cork to head straight for County Hurdle

By Racing TV

Last Updated: Tue 5 Dec 2023

Greatwood Hurdle winner West Cork suffered an overreach at Ascot on Saturday and will go straight for the County Hurdle - the Cheltenham Festival contest his trainer Dan Skelton has landed three times in the last six seasons.

West Cork returned from over 600 days off the track to win at Cheltenham last month, and Skelton also believes his seven-year-old may have bounced at the weekend.

West Cork lands the Greatwood Hurdle on his return last month in a distinguished training performance

Speaking in a video posted on his Twitter account, Skelton said: “We didn’t quite get the result we wanted after the Greatwood. He jumped two out going really well and I think he bounced on us.

“He actually came back back with quite a severe overreach which we’ve had to put a cast on just to hold everything together.

“He’s fine on it, he’s 100 per cent weight-bearing on it and can walk on it, he’s sound.

“He’ll go straight to Cheltenham now for the County Hurdle, a race we’ve won a few times before and I think he’ll go really well in that.

“That second run after a layoff, we don’t understand why it happens, but he seems absolutely fine.”

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