Teeton Mill and Hors La Loi dead

Two giants of the National Hunt game in recent decades have died. Winner of the Hennessy and the King George VI Chase in 1998, Teeton Mill was first trained by Caroline Bailey and then by Venetia Williams. The grey started out hunter chasing before graduating to chases in the 1998/99 season. A son of Neltino, Teeton Mill headed to Ascot after his Newbury and Kempton successes and won another Grade 1 in the Ascot Chase in February 1999, One of the brighter prospects for the Cheltenham Gold Cup that year, sadly his career ended in the race when suffering a serious injury. He was 25 this year. The much-travelled Hors La Loi, winner of the Champion Hurdle in 2002, has died at the age of 19. The talented but enigmatic French-bred was trained by James Fanshawe when landing the top prize but started off with Francois Doumen, winning as a juvenile for him at Lingfield and Cheltenham before being sold to Jersey-based owner Paul Green, who sent him to Martin Pipe.

The latter won the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle with him but Hors La Loi went back to Doumen for a while, winning the Kingwell at Wincanton before moving to Fanshawe. Hors La Loi’s finest triumph was overshadowed to a degree because the racing world was watching the mighty Istabraq as he went for a fourth victory in the big race. However, he was pulled up before the third flight and subsequently retired

Further setback for Sire De Grugy

Sire De Grugy, this year’s winner of the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham, will miss the eagerly awaited meeting with Sprinter Sacre in the Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown in early December due to injury. A scan on Wednesday revealed some heat in the chaser’s hip as his trainer Gary Moore explained: “There is no stress fracture of the tibia and his pelvis is fine as well but he has one hot area on a hip. I don’t know how he has done it but it’s probably through rolling in the sand paddock.’’

Moore is hopeful that the horse will be able to defend the two-mile chasing championship at Cheltenham next spring.