Arkle Chase

Energumene has been ruled out of the Arkle next week due to a setback, as announced by Willie Mullins this morning. 

Plenty of punters had backed the Irish contender from big prices down and he was as short as 2/1 before being withdrawn from the betting this morning. 

The Tony Bloom owned seven-year-old had hardly put a foot wrong on his three chase starts to date, with a blistering success at the Dublin Racing Festival confirming his Arkle credentials.

It was set to a mouth-watering clash between Energumene and Shishkin but sadly it hasn’t come to fruition. 

The rest of the field has in turn shortened, with Shishkin is now a best price of 8/15.

 

This now looks a far easier task for Nicky Henderson’s rising star, but he will still have to get the better of second-favourite Allmankind who has been cut into 4/1.

Captain Guinness is now an 8/1 chance and Franco De Port is 12/1 from 16/1 following the news. 

It’s a huge disappointment we won’t get to see the highly anticipated clash, with Shishkin now looking very likely to score at the Cheltenham Festival for the second time.