SARA Bradstock continues to hope for the best after Coneygree suffered a minor setback at their Letcombe Bassett stables on Monday.

The Cheltenham Gold Cup winner is due to contest the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury on Saturday week, but his participation was thrown into doubt when he spread a plate.

Bradstock, who is assistant to her trainer-husband, Mark, is keeping her fingers crossed for a swift recovery with a weekend gallop judged crucial to Coneygree’s plans.

She said: “He pulled a shoe, it didn’t cause him any problems but we can’t see if it’s a bruised foot or if he’s brewing an abscess.

“We’re hoping for an abscess as the pus will seep out and he should be OK. If it’s a deep-seated bruise, he might not make it (the Hennessy).

“If he misses his gallop at the weekend he won’t run and for him to take part in that he would need to have a shoe on by Thursday.”

West Ilsley trainer Mick Channon was thrilled after Knock House gave him his first Cheltenham winner for many a year.

The six-year-old put up a terrific performance to defy top weight by a neck from Foxbridge in the Cheltenham Club Amateur Riders’ Handicap Chase over three miles and a furlong on Friday.

Channon’s hopes of making a swift return to the Cheltenham winner’s enclosure with Somersby were dashed when his stable star finished a 14-lengths second to Sprinter Sacre.

He could go for the Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown on December 5 or the following day’s Peterborough Chase at Huntingdon.