Zarkandar On Antibiotics

Hold off on any of your bets on Zarkandar for a minute as a bout of coughing has hit the Paul Nicholls yard and the 2012 Champion Hurdle second favourite is being treated with antibiotics!

Clearly this has worried punters fans of the 2012 Cheltenham Festival but last night trainer Paul Nicholls described a bout of coughing at his yard as “no big deal”, but did reveal that Zarkandar was among a dozen horses on a course of antibiotics.

Nicholls may be urging for restraint when it comes to panicing but that didn’t stop bookmakers from rapidly adjusting their markets and in doing so shortened Willie Mullins and Nicky Henderson, whilst also lengthening Nicholls.

When speaking to RacingPost.com Nicholls said: “Like lot of other stables, we’ve had the odd one coughing on and off since Christmas. Last week there were a couple more than usual who were affected. My suspicion is they have picked it up on the course and brought it back to the yard.

“On Saturday morning Zarkandar had a runny nose and was coughing like mad, so he must be some horse to have won like he did at Newbury the day before.

“But Zarkandar is already like a different animal to what he was on Sunday morning with the antibiotics kicking in.”