Shishkin on the mend

barjon

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From Henderson’s Unibet blog:

We received some good news today with regards to Shishkin who, after conducting some follow up bone scans last week, he has been given the green light to resume normal proceedings and return to full training.

It’s worth explaining what actually happened after Cheltenham when he was lame in unspecific departments; basically he was a bit lame here and a bit lame there which meant it was hard to diagnose what was actually wrong with him, so we did a full skeletal body scan of which we discovered that he was suffering from an extremely rare bone condition called Enostosis-like lesions.

Five of which were identified in the ‘long bones’, which is the relevant thing, it’s not in the joints but places like the Cannon Bone, Tibia, Femur and such like, and these were quite obvious on the original bone scan but I’m pleased to say that after his latest scan there is no evidence of any of them anymore, so we are now good to go.

He’s had a long summer of recuperation at Charlie and Tracy Vigors’ Hillwood Stud, where he always goes for his holidays, and while he was never turned out with the others in a massive field he was able to enjoy his own space in a more restricted area and under controlled ‘exercise’ throughout the whole time.

There isn’t much medication you can give for this unique condition, it’s just a case of allowing everything to heal in its own time and thankfully everything is now completely clean and there is no evidence of anything existing anymore. Apparently there is no reason why he should get it (again) more than any other horse because it is extremely rare to have it at all, let alone more than once, so there should be nothing to worry about in the future.

Obviously, the question on many people’s mind will be the time scale and when he’ll be on a racecourse again and at this stage it is simply to early to speculate.

The Tingle Creek is on Saturday 3rd December and I’d hesitate to say that’s what we’re aiming at but it’s still quite possible he’ll get to Sandown if everything goes well, although only he can tell us that.

He’s not starting from complete scratch as he’s done lots of prep work with the Vigors family and returned to Seven Barrows about a month ago where he’s been spending lots of time on the horse walker and doing plenty of build-up work, so we do have something to work on which means there is at least a chance of him making Sandown. If he’s not ready in time, we’ll go the same route as last year and look at the Desert Orchid Chase and then the Clarence House. As always, he comes first, and we certainly won’t be rushing him into anything.

At the end of the day this is all very good news and he looks absolutely magnificent. Everything is going to plan so I couldn’t be happier.

This is always a great time of the year for us because all the horses have returned from their holidays, some looking like they’ve enjoyed a few too many pies! But they all look great and we’ve sorted out a few issues here and there and things are good. Constitution Hil l is hacking away nicely while Jonbon and Epatante are in tremendous shape. Chantry House has grown two inches and has had wind surgery so hopefully that will sort his problems out and I’m delighted with Champ as well.
 
There are an awful lot of things to be negative about in the world at the present time. Given the tone of Henderson"s comments I'm going to be positive -" Come on boy!"
 
My prediction: Shishkin will miss Sandown, return in a 3-runner Emblem Chase at Kempton, miss Cheltenham and Aintree, and trot round to win at Sandown in April.
 
miss Cheltenham

Very possible. And if you look at the market for the Queen Mother Energumene aside you have Ferny Hollow who's missed two straight Festivals, Gentleman De Mee who has no Cheltenham form other than the bad kind and Edwardstone who is getting on a bit. Am I out of my tiny mind for thinking Third Time Lucki is backable at 40s?
 
My prediction: Shishkin will miss Sandown, return in a 3-runner Emblem Chase at Kempton, miss Cheltenham and Aintree, and trot round to win at Sandown in April.

I agree with all of this with the exception of the Emblem and the Sandown April race, both of which he will miss, late withdrawal for (a) grass is wrong colour and (b) Nico has a cold sore.
 
Nicky can't be faulted when it comes to comebacks. He brought Sprinter Sacre back to regain his title and See You Then was always spot on when the big day came around.

I could see him running in the Tingle Creek and I reckon Nicky will be all out to get him fit for that and one more before Cheltenham.

The Tingle Creek will be Shishkin's Champion Chase if you like

Nicky's not stupid and he knows the chances of beating a 100% Energumene would be a huge ask such has the WPM star improved.

So he'll be out to win whatever he can before hand fitness allowing.
 
I read up on the condition and fair play to them for spotting it as it’s not an easy one to detect and requires a full nuclear body scan. However with the right amount of rest and treatment, they do completely recover and there’s absolutely no reason why he can’t resume a normal racing career. I don’t know how much pain he would have gone through will he had it and presumably raced with it so that would be my only concern as I am a big believer that horses remember pain and some are too wary to put themselves through it again.
 
I read up on the condition and fair play to them for spotting it as it’s not an easy one to detect and requires a full nuclear body scan. However with the right amount of rest and treatment, they do completely recover and there’s absolutely no reason why he can’t resume a normal racing career.

That would be brilliant all round.


I don’t know how much pain he would have gone through will he had it and presumably raced with it so that would be my only concern as I am a big believer that horses remember pain and some are too wary to put themselves through it again.

That would be my concern too.
 
Very possible. And if you look at the market for the Queen Mother Energumene aside you have Ferny Hollow who's missed two straight Festivals, Gentleman De Mee who has no Cheltenham form other than the bad kind and Edwardstone who is getting on a bit. Am I out of my tiny mind for thinking Third Time Lucki is backable at 40s?

If it was run at the oct/Nov meeting maybe he would have a chance

It does look a poor race and there are at least 6 horses ahead of him in the betting whom are rank average
 
Very possible. And if you look at the market for the Queen Mother Energumene aside you have Ferny Hollow who's missed two straight Festivals, Gentleman De Mee who has no Cheltenham form other than the bad kind and Edwardstone who is getting on a bit. Am I out of my tiny mind for thinking Third Time Lucki is backable at 40s?

I looked at the race a few weeks back with the same approach/starting point re the market and landed on Riviere Detel myself.
 
I looked at the race a few weeks back with the same approach/starting point re the market and landed on Riviere Detel myself.

I don't think Cheltenham is her course BoS. I think she needs to go right-handed, and will never be good enough in a G1 unless she does. I'd be surprised if she wasn't aimed at somewhere else other than Cheltenham actually.
 
If it was run at the oct/Nov meeting maybe he would have a chance

It does look a poor race and there are at least 6 horses ahead of him in the betting whom are rank average

Agree, TTL best run of the season always seems to be his first one.

The feature handicap at the Showcase meeting in October would be the obvious starting point.
 
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