The 2010 Cheltenham Gold Cup hero has been sidelined by injury since pulling up in the Prestbury Park showpiece in March of last year, but trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies had been looking forward to seeing him return on Saturday for a race he won two years ago. However, his comeback has now been delayed until the New Year. Twiston-Davies said: "He's suffered a small fracture of a splint bone in a hind leg unfortunately. Profiles N A Twiston-Davies Imperial Commander (IRE) "It's nothing dramatic, but it means he won't be in full work for around six weeks. We can still do swimming with him and things like that. It's disappointing but these things happen. "We'll see how we get on but the obvious race for him when he comes back is the race at Cheltenham in January (Argento Chase)." Sky Bet now make Long Run their 5-4 favourite with Silviniaco Conti next best at 9-4, The Giant Bolster 6-1, Weird Al 7-1 and 10-1 bar those
I'm not sure why they're bringing the horse back at all, I can't accept he'll be anywhere near as good as he was before he retired so the horse we see will be a mere shadow of his former self. 12 in January and 2 years off the course, if he does come back I'm convinced he'll be pulled up a couple of times then re-retired and everyone will accept it was an over ambitious punt....
A real shame. I think you have to leave it to NTD, Paddy Brennan, and the workriders here and trust them to make a sensible decision (not that I would EVER trust NTD to do that). Last time we saw him, he had taken the lead in the Gold Cup, was travelling very well, but a blunder 4 out knocked the stuffing out of him. He was very talented but these ligament injuries are notoriously difficult to bounce back from. Long Run 5/4 in the Betfair? No thanks.
