Tom O'Brien joins 'gutted' James Bowen on Cheltenham Festival injury list

Thyme Hill's regular partner Tom O'Brien and James Bowen are both set to miss next month's Cheltenham Festival after suffering injuries this week. 

O'Brien, who has enjoyed a successful partnership with trainer Philip Hobbs, including a pair of Grade 1 successes on Thyme Hill, dislocated his shoulder at Ludlow on Wednesday and is unlikely to recover in time for the festival. 

"My shoulder was put back in on course but I've definitely got over a month on the sidelines, unfortunately," said O'Brien. "It's left me with no strength in my right arm and I had a scan today, which I'll get the results of on Monday. 

"The results will determine whether I need an operation, I asked if I had any chance of getting enough strength back in three weeks and the answer was no, it needs to be rested."

The injury means O'Brien will be unable to ride Thyme Hill in next month's Brown Advisory Novices' Chase, for which he is a general 5-1 chance, but the jockey remains optimistic about an Aintree return. 

"It's part of the game and I've been lucky to avoid a layoff for quite a while," he added. "It does come to us all eventually, but the timing is just very unfortunate. Aintree would be a realistic target for a return." 

Bowen on the sidelines

Bowen's hopes of riding his first Cheltenham Festival winner this year have been dashed after breaking his arm at Huntingdon on Thursday.

The jockey came to challenge the leaders in a handicap hurdle on the Billy Aprahamian-trained Mutual Respect when he was unseated and took an awkward fall.

James Bowen: suffered his injury when being unseated at Huntingdon on ThursdayCredit: Grossick Racing

The screens were up for 15 minutes after racing while Bowen was assessed before being transported to Peterborough Hospital for x-rays.

He said: "It's gutting, but there's not much we can do about it so there's no point getting too upset. It could be a lot worse.

"I knew straight away to be honest and I've no idea how long I'll be off. It feels grand today and if it was up to me I'd be back next week but you're not normally allowed on the course for four weeks so it probably won't be less than that."

Bowen, who is attached to the powerful Nicky Henderson yard, was scheduled to have five rides for his boss at Chepstow on Saturday and would have had some promising rides at the festival.

Henderson said: "The latest information we have is that James has broken his arm, which means we have problems for Cheltenham. I feel very sorry for him and it's frustrating with a lot of racing coming up. It could not have been worse timing.

"I think he's having further x-rays this morning but we haven't heard any more as yet. He was going to ride five of ours at Chepstow on Saturday and we've had to change riding arrangements for the whole lot."

Bowen has been replaced on Boom Boom (12.47) and Surrey Quest (3.07) by Paul O'Brien, Ben Bromley now rides Rathmacknee (1.57) and Sean O'Briain will partner Choccabloc (4.52). His brother Sean replaces him on the Warren Greatrex-trained Henschke (2.32).

Henderson added: "It's frustrating for him. He would have had some very good rides for us but these things happen and we'll have to get on with it."

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