Mike Cattermole on Thistlecrack and more racing news

Thistlecrack will be hugely missed

What a bombshell that was on Tuesday: Wayne Shaw resigns from Sutton after pie-eating stunt!

I jest. More about poor Big Wayne, below. I am referring of course to Thistlecrack being ruled out for the season. As sporting disappointments go, this was right up there.

It is so very sad for the chaser's connections, a body blow to the wallets of those who had backed him ante-post and gutting for all of us jumping fans who have been denied the chance of seeing him "go for Gold".

There is always next year of course but by then, Thistlecrack will be a year older at 10, and just that little bit more vulnerable than he had been. Rest assured, Team Tizzard will be doing their level best to get him back but only if he is ready and able.

When the decision was made at the start of the season to fast-track him to the Gold Cup, there were always going to be risks attached. The owners and trainer knew that, but they deserve credit for trying. That decision alone lifted the whole season, which is why it is such a shuddering blow that it won't now happen. And that it has occurred so close to the race.

Not only are the last two Gold Cup winners now missing - Coneygree was ruled out a while ago - but now the Festival will be without "The Big Four", the champions from last year's feature races.

Annie Power, Sprinter Sacre and Don Cossack would have returned as defending champions. Only Thistlecrack, last year's Stayers' Hurdle winner, was attempting something different. Two have been retired due to injury and who's to say we have not seen the last of Annie?

Add to those names Faugheen and Min, along with the untimely deaths of both Vautour and Many Clouds, and rarely has so much top talent en masse been missing from a Festival.

It just goes to show what a hard game this is and the price these horses can pay for our pleasure.

Geraghty faces some tough choices

For good reason, JP McManus is odds-on to be leading owner at the Festival. So many good horses set to carry the famous green and gold hoops. Some in the same race, of course.

As retained rider, Barry Geraghty is going to face some tough choices during the week, starting with the Champion Hurdle. Yanworth, Buveur D'Air or old pal Jezki?

Barry loves Jezki and is six out of six on him. He will know that the ground was all wrong at Gowran Park last Saturday.

Buveur D'Air is class but unproven at this sort of level. He was mightily impressive at Sandown and he is trained by Nicky Henderson, who has had more Champion Hurdle winners than corduroy trousers.

And then there's Yanworth who is doing so well since being dropped in trip. Unspectacular he may be, but he is a proper trier and a winner, who is sure to improve over a stiffer track. I thought he did his job well enough at Wincanton when said to be far from fully wound up. He might be the one.

Over to you, Barry!

Weights row a storm in a saddlecloth

I sort of get the row between both Michael and Eddie O'Leary and Phil Smith but there is something unedifying about it. Is it good publicity? Well, it gets people talking about the race, I suppose. Some of the comments ("post-Brexit handicap" - eh?) have been downright odd, though.

Michael O'Leary, I am surmising, is probably used to getting his own way in life after a highly successful business career and he can do - and does - what he likes with his horses. And what a team of horses! But announcing in a fit of pique that some wouldn't now be running smacks of the spoiled child snatching his toys away.

This comes from the man who actually won the race only a year ago - for the second time. So, I am sure the great race has a special place in his heart, which indeed may have provoked the outrage as of course he wants to win it again. Who wouldn't?

O'Leary will NOT be saying "Ok, Mr Smith. We will have to agree to disagree. But, this is one of the world's greatest races so I will duly let my horses do the talking and I will be delighted to be proved wrong."

But I wish he would.

Anyway, his horses at the top of the handicap - Outlander, Empire Of Dirt and Don Poli - all have alternative engagements first at Cheltenham, so maybe see how they get on there first. Poli does look a proper Aintree type though, doesn't he?

What I cannot have is that there is a bias against Irish-trained horses in handicaps over here. One thing I am sure about is that the BHA's team of handicappers are as objective as they possibly can be and you can't please everybody all of the time. It's truly a thankless task.

Some feel that the handicapper should be like a referee and, by virtue of doing a good job, must remain virtually anonymous. Smith, however, enjoys explaining how he goes about his work and his appearances on At The Races make interesting listening.

If Smith retires this week, he will be remembered for his successful efforts to "compress" (that's the word he likes to use) the weights at the top of the handicap to encourage some of the best chasers around to take part in the world's most famous steeplechase.

It has worked in getting some of them there. But the likes of Silviniaco Conti, Long Run, Lord Windermere, Synchronised and Tidal Bay, who had won King Georges, Gold Cups and Lexus Chases, didn't ultimately shine or had terrible luck at the National.

We all love Native River

That was a mighty strange lead story carried by the Racing Post on Tuesday with Native River's owner, Garth Broom, claiming that "his knockers keep trying to pick holes" and that Native was a "Marmite" racehorse.

Mr Broom must live in a different world. I wrote a piece in last week's column about Native River's recent Newbury win and tried to put it into context. That's what you have to do. I described him as "a lovely staying chaser who has Gold Cup stamped all over him."

At no time did I criticise or have a go at the horse and wouldn't wish to. Anybody would dream of owning a horse like Native River who never stops galloping and jumping.

In fact, I have never heard anybody say anything but positive things about him. Plus, he is going to take one hell of a lot of beating in the Gold Cup.

Wayne Shaw - a pie too far

My pal picked it up quickly as the cameras zoomed in on Wayne Shaw eating his pie during the Sutton/Arsenal match: "He's been put up to that!"

He was of course and now he has lost his job. A stunt just to get a bookmaker some low level publicity - it is a bit sad, on all counts.

I had heard Shaw being interviewed on the radio before the match and he is clearly a larger than life character, who enjoyed his dual role of groundsman and "roly-poly" reserve keeper.

Getting involved in eating the pie probably sounded like a good idea at the time. What harm would it do? His mates could make a few quid and have a laugh. He has, however, paid quite a price for taking part in this and I just hope the bookmaker paid him quite a price for his (big) trouble.

There was so much good about the Sutton/Arsenal encounter but seeing a man lose his job over this silly affair has sullied it. As bookie-backed stunts go, this was probably the worst since Nicklas Bendtner pulled down his pants to reveal a layer's logo after scoring a goal in the Champions League.

Arsene Wenger would not have been impressed with the Dane at the time but, by comparison, Sutton have hung Shaw out to dry. It all seems far too PC to me.

If he is not re-employed, I wonder if there could be more than just an official backlash against those that put Shaw up to it.