Champ has been taken out of the Boodles Gold Cup while Sharjah will miss the Unibet Champion Hurdle following the latest forfeit stage for the major Cheltenham Festival races.
Nicky Henderson’s 10-year-old Champ is already a winner at the big meeting having come from an unpromising position to land the 2020 RSA (now Brown Advisory) Chase and will take his chance in the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle this year.
He ran in the Gold Cup last season, but was pulled up and it emerged he was suffering with a back issue.
