SHISKIN is over his ‘extremely rare’ injury and roaring to race again, Nicky Henderson has confirmed.
The Seven Barrows supremo has also issued an update on massively exciting Champion Hurdle favourite Constitution Hill.
Shishkin is ready to rock again this season, Henderson has confirmed, after the horse recovered from his ‘extremely rare’ injury
Shishkin flopped in the Champion Chase at this year’s Cheltenham Festival, being pulled up as Energumene powered through the mud to win.
Writing in his Unibet blog, Hendo revealed the cause of the bad run.
He said: “After Cheltenham he was a bit lame here, a bit lame there, which meant it was hard to diagnose what was actually wrong with him.
“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.
“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.
“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.
“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, December 3, 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.
“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.”
Henderson also had positive updates on runaway Supreme winner Constitution Hill and JP McManus’ Grade 1-winning hurdler Jonbon.
He added: “Constitution Hill 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.”
