THE Timico Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Coneygree, who took the race as a novice in 2015, will not be entered in the race this year as trainer’s wife Sara Bradstock revealed that he has not recovered sufficiently from the injuries that kept him out of the King George over Christmas.

However, he may yet run again this season with Punchestown a possibility, according to Bradstock. "He'll definitely have some spring target and could go to Aintree or Punchestown unless something else goes wrong," she said. "We just need to do this right."

Now a 10-year-old, Coneygree has run just twice since his fairytale success in 2015 under Nico De Boinville, the more recent coming when he finished second to Cue Card in November's Betfair Chase, his first defeat over fences.

Sara Bradstock said on Monday: "We're not going to enter him in the Gold Cup. If everything changed and suddenly everything looked perfect, his x-rays and him, we could supplement him, but I'm not going to enter him because I'm 90% certain he will not run."

"It's all too quick. It's only two months from now and he's still only walking and we're not going to be there in top form," she continued.

Injuries have plagued Coneygree's career. He also missed the season after his novice hurdle campaign, before returning to win his four starts in his novice chase season which ended up with his famous Gold Cup success.