Racing: Tiutchev ills overshadow Mai day

The frailty of the ice on which trainers tiptoe was illustrated here yesterday, as Nicky Henderson witnessed part of his Cheltenham dream disappear before the action on the track had even begun. Shortly after arriving at the course one of his charges, the nine-year-old gelding Tiutchev, who would have started red-hot favourite for the featured Ascot Chase and had the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Festival in his sights after a breathtaking seasonal debut at Sandown two weeks previously, succumbed to an attack of colic. A previous bout of the ailment had nearly killed him during the close season last summer and last night he was on a drip in the critical ward at the Royal Veterinary College in Hertfordshire.

Colic is a fancy way of describing stomach ache, but for an animal with 70 feet of intestine the ramifications can be serious and Tiutchev will almost certainly miss his date at next month's gathering of the great and good in the Cotswolds.

But of more immediate concern to those closest to him is his life. "He has been stabilised and they are getting fluids into him," Henderson said during the afternoon, "but the next 24 hours will be crucial. He was fine when he left home in the morning, but in his box at the track began to look uncomfortable. Pete Deacon, who looks after him, and Johnny Worral, my travelling head lad, quickly realised he was not right and the course vets started treatment immediately.

"The welfare of the horse is paramount. But it is particularly galling, as we had him back to the horse he was when he won the Arkle Chase two years ago. He had been going so brilliantly at home."

The ill-fortune of Tiutchev was a bombshell, too, to stable jockey Mick Fitzgerald, for whom the afternoon had promised much but ended barren. His first mount Artic Jack, favourite for the Reynoldstown Novices' Chase, ran a stinker behind Jimmy Tennis; Farmer Jack, favourite for the valuable sponsored handicap hurdle, caught a tartar from the Martin Pipe yard, Ideal du Bois Beury; and a transfer to Exit To Wave's saddle in the Ascot Chase produced a moderate fourth of five.

"As far as Tiutchev is concerned, it's not so bad for me, because I don't see him every morning and evening, I only turn up to ride him," Fitzgerald said, "but obviously I am very, very disappointed. For all of us, the whole season is geared to Cheltenham and what every jockey wants is a proper ride in the three big races, the Gold Cup, the Champion Hurdle and the Champion Chase. And the way he was at Sandown he'd have given me a real chance."

The recipient of the proverbial good from the ill wind blowing over Henderson's Seven Barrows yard was Pipe, who, in Tiutchev's absence, took the Grade One Ascot Chase with Tresor de Mai and made it four for the afternoon with Iznogoud and Stormez. Pipe, with his own Cheltenham candidates to fret over daily, was the first to sympathise with Henderson. "In the build-up you worry about every horse for every hour of every day," he said, "and you know that anything can happen to any one of them."

Unusually, none of the victorious Pipe quartet – Ideal du Bois Beury (10-1), Tresor de Mai (9-2), Iznogoud (2-1) and Stormez (2-1) – started favourite. All bar the first, who was the mount of Tom Scudamore, were ridden by Tony McCoy, who is now just 27 short in his quest to beat Sir Gordon Richards' record of 269 in a domestic season.

Tresor de Mai bounced back from a disappointing effort at Doncaster three weeks ago, sailing past Banker Count on the home turn to score by 11 lengths on his favourite course. He will skip Cheltenham, though, as will Stormez, who had his mind changed for him by the champion as he began to falter in the closing stages of the three-mile novice hurdle. McCoy insisted and Stormez gathered himself to beat Young Ottoman a head. "I'm not sure he really got home and he wouldn't be good enough anyway for the staying novice race at Cheltenham," Pipe said.

Ironically, McCoy had almost given the afternoon here a miss in favour of riding at Warwick. "I had been wanting to go there to ride Hit And Run all week, but I felt the ground might be a bit soft for him and we had a few here with chances." His understated judgement proved spot-on, with Hit And Run unsighted behind impressive Irish Independent Arkle Trophy-bound Armaturk in the Grade Two novice chase.

Last year's Grand National runner-up, Smarty, finished a good third to Stormez as his big-race build-up gathers pace. But his conqueror in the mud at Aintree, Red Marauder, will not be defending his title. Norman Mason's gallant but fragile chestnut was ruled out for the season after the recurrence of an old leg injury.