24 January 2024 , 17:45
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France’s best chance of producing a winner at the Cheltenham Festival has been ruled out of his big race target.
Theleme landed the French Champion Hurdle, the Grande Course de Haies d’Auteuil, in 2023, as he rattled up a sequence of four wins from five starts.
Owned by the Leeds-based Gordon family, he was due to contest the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle at Cheltenham in March for which he was disputing favouritism with Teahupoo.
He was due to have his warm-up for Cheltenham in a race on the Flat, but he was taken out of the betting after connections of the Arnaud Chaille-Chaille-trained horse revealed he had met with a setback.
Teahupoo is now 3-1 joint favourite with stablemate Irish Point for the £325,000 day three feature in William Hill's revised betting.
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The owners’ racing manager Bertrand Le Metayer said: “It’s just a small setback, but it’s disappointing.
“You have ups and downs - it’s not serious, but we will have to back off him for two or three weeks.
“He should be fit again for the spring in France and we’ll try Cheltenham again next year - it’s what racing is all about.”