Fears over the well-being of Punchestowns were confirmed this afternoon after it was revealed that Nicky Henderson's RSA hope had suffered a setback.
Last year's World Hurdle runner up, unbeaten in two starts over fences, was drifting like a barge in the ante post market for the RSA this morning and at one point touched 16.5-1 on Betfair.
All the money was for his stable companion Long Run, who is now clear favourite and as short as 5-2.
Nicky Henderson, speaking at Newbury, said that Punchestowns had been found to be lame on his near fore this morning.
He said: ``We have a problem with Punchestowns on his near-fore. A similar thing happened last weekend and we had to take his shoe off, but it cleared up quickly and he spent a couple of days swimming, so didn't really miss anything.
``He worked on Wednesday and I couldn't have been more thrilled. The plan was to school him today, which we couldn't do anyway due to the frost, as it was still minus 7C at 7am with us.
``We were then going to bring him to work here at Newbury on Sunday, but we found him to be lame on his foot again last night.
``We have X-rayed it and there is nothing there. I can't say any more than that at the moment other than we will monitor it and let people know how he progresses.
``The last time it happened he was sound within 24 to 48 hours and he loved going swimming, but I did want to get another run into him and that hasn't happened and now there is this, so I am just warning people.''
