Nicky Henderson may have to fork out £4,599 from his own pocket after mistakenly not entering Epatante in the Close Brothers’ Mares’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.
Henderson held his hands up after the 2020 winner featured among the Champion Hurdle entries but not the race for which she is 4-1 co-second favourite when the nominations were revealed on Tuesday.
This season the J P McManus-owned Epatante has twice been on the wrong end of heavy defeats by superstar hurdler and stablemate Constitution Hill, the long odds-on favourite for the Champion, finishing 17 lengths behind in their latest encounter in the Christmas Hurdle.