'It hits you when everything's good' - Aucunrisque to miss Kingwell Hurdle after suffering colic

Saturday's Betfair Hurdle winner Aucunrisque is one of five horses in the Chris Gordon stable to be suffering with colic after consuming a bad batch of feed, and the trainer has been left reflecting on how luck can quickly change as he enjoys one of the best spells of his career.

Gordon received news that two horses had fallen ill as he celebrated victory for Lord Baddesley at Plumpton on Monday. He later discovered three more horses to be unwell but describes the situation as "all good", blaming the haylage as they all had identical minor symptoms.

The setback comes as the trainer, based at Morestead in Hampshire, is enjoying a tremendous streak of form with seven winners from 18 runners this month.

Success in Newbury's illustrious handicap was the pinnacle of an excellent spell, but the illness means Aucunrisque will now miss his intended target this weekend, the Jennings Bet-sponsored Kingwell Hurdle at Wincanton.

"It always hits you when you're having a few winners and everything seems to be going well," Gordon said. "We had a new batch of haylage in and had five horses go down with colic, one of which was Aucunrisque.

"The horses are all fine, two of them aren't great but they're going the right way. This [bad haylage] can be pretty common, colic is one of the biggest pains. It wasn't like a twisted gut, it's just stomach ache. With something like this – when you have five get it instead of one – you know how it's come about. It's just a bit of tummy pain but they're good now.

"We were celebrating Lord Baddesley winning on Monday and shortly after I had a phone call that two horses had been quite ill, and before I knew it there were five. We're just lucky to have found out what it was, but we'll be all good."

Aucunrisque had initially come out of his run in such good form his trainer entered him in the Grade 2 just seven days on from his Newbury heroics. He will now head to the Cheltenham Festival, with the Grand Annual and County Hurdle both options.

"It just shows that people don't realise how many things can go wrong in the background," he added. "He's probably destined to go to Cheltenham now. He'll have an entry for the Grand Annual and the County, we'll have a look at both and they'll be very interesting races."

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