Talking Horses: Russell back on track for Festival with Kennedy sidelined

J ack Kennedy, the No 1 rider for Gordon Elliott’s powerful Irish stable, has been ruled out of the Cheltenham Festival later this month after failing to recover in time from a broken leg, sustained in a fall at Naas in January.

“He tried his best, but it [the Festival] is just coming too soon,” Kevin O’Ryan, the rider’s agent, said on Friday. “He is keen to get back as soon as possible, but he is going to give it all the time it needs. Hopefully it will be a couple of weeks after Cheltenham.”

In his absence, Davy Russell, who announced his retirement from race-riding in December and only returned to the saddle after Kennedy’s injury, will have high hopes of adding to his current total of 25 Cheltenham Festival winners.

Elliott’s team for National Hunt’s showpiece meeting includes Mighty Potter, the clear favourite for the Turners Novice Chase on 16 March and a Grade One winner, with Russell in the saddle, at last month’s Dublin Racing Festival. Gerri Colombe, who took the Scilly Isles Novice Chase at Sandown last month, is favourite for the Brown Advisory Novice Chase while Teahupoo is a leading contender for the Stayers’ Hurdle.

Russell has taken only two rides since a fall on the second day of the Dublin Racing Festival but is booked for two of Elliott’s runners at Leopardstown on Sunday. He is the 10-1 third-favourite to finish the Festival as the meeting’s leading rider, behind Paul Townend (1-3) and Nico de Boinville (6-1).

In other Festival news, prominent trainer Paul Nicholls has described himself as “livid” with the timing of the new whip rules ahead of Cheltenham.

New rules and a tougher penalty structure for misuse of the whip were introduced on 13 February by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), with