Richard Bandey's Theatre Man might choose to compete in hurdles for the remainder of the season to maintain his status as a novice chaser for the upcoming term, following his disappointment at the Cheltenham Festival.
The eight-year-old horse was the favourite at odds of 100-30 for the Plate race, having performed well in previous races at the track, finishing second to Ginny's Destiny in the Timeform Novices' Handicap Chase on Trials day.
Before that, he had achieved placings in two nearly three-mile chases at Newbury, indicating a promising debut season over fences leading up to the Festival.
Unfortunately, his Plate race ended prematurely when, under the jockey Harry Cobden, he made a jumping mistake at the third obstacle and unseated his rider after a standing start.
Fortunately, neither horse nor rider suffered any harm, and Theatre Man may now transition back to hurdling to maintain his novice ranking in the field of fences for the next season.
"The plan is that we're thinking we want to keep him as a novice for next season over fences, so we might well revert to hurdles for another run this season.
"We'll look at handicaps at Aintree at two and a half and three (miles) possibly, and we're looking at other options at Sandown or Ayr at the end of the season," stated Bandey.