Imperial Commander will miss the Betfair Chase after suffering a setback when schooling yesterday. Despite completing the routine session in good fashion, he was discovered to have a small cut on his back leg which was sore to touch.

Syndicate head Ian Robinson said

When he pulled out this morning he had a small swelling over the outside of the cannon bone, which was warm to touch and has been diagnosed as a stress fracture in the splint bone. It is a freak injury which was caused by an impact as he struck into himself whilst schooling, it doesn’t look a lot but it is enough to require a break from his training program.

He will need a period of box rest to recover, before he can return to any exercise. It is a relatively common injury it is a waiting game and he won’t be rushed, in any event he won’t be returning to any sort of exercise before the middle of December. 

It is obviously disappointing as he has shown a lot of the old sparkle in his last few pieces of work. More importantly he is fine in himself and given a suitable break will fully recover. We are not making any plans at this stage, he has given us so much he will only be asked to do what he wants to do.

Here’s some footage of the gallop that did the damage