Money Trix will not take his place in this year's Cheltenham Gold Cup.(credit:
CharlesFred)
Nicky Richards has ruled his stable star Money Trix out of the Cheltenham Gold Cup after his poor performance in the Hennessy Gold Cup at Leopardstown earlier this month.
The ten-year-old went into the Grade One with connections full of confidence after he managed to finish half a length behind What A Friend in the Lexus Chase over Christmas.
However, he could only finish sixth out of seven in the Hennessy and Richards has explained that connections have chosen to bypass a trip to this year’s Festival.
"Everything is OK with him but we just decided we're not going to bother with the Gold Cup," Richards explained.
"He came back from Leopardstown with a bit of a bruised foot but he'll be fine and I suppose the options for him now would be Aintree and Punchestown.
"The main thing with him is the ground though and if it doesn't go his way in the spring, he probably wouldn't run again this season.
"We were obviously disappointed with his last run but in fairness to Davy (Russell), he came back and held his hands up and said he hadn't ridden a very good race.
"He said he should have kicked on earlier and made use of his stamina, but it says something about the man that he blamed himself.
"We'll not look backwards anyway and we'll look forward to the future with him."
Punters can get a free £10 bet on this year's Cheltenham Gold Cup with leading British bookmkaer Coral.
**Totesport Gold Cup - Coral
4-6 Kauto Star, 7-2 Denman, 12-1 Cooldine, Imperial Commander, 16-1 Taranis, 33-1 Tricky Trickster, 40-1 Carruthers, 50-1 Madison Du Berlais, Notre Pere, 66-1 Bar