Kim Bailey has announced his top novice chaser Vinndication will miss next week’s Cheltenham Festival.

Bailey was not happy with the six-year-old in a gallop at Newbury racecourse on Sunday morning, and has decided Cheltenham will have to wait until at least next season for the Grade 2 winner.

Vinndication lost his unbeaten record on his seventh racecourse appearance when he was third to Defi Du Seuil in Sandown’s Grade One Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase early last month.

He had previously won the Noel Novices’ Chase at Ascot and was prominent in the betting for both the RSA and JLT – respectively over three miles and a half a furlong and two miles four – at Prestbury Park next week.

Bailey said on his website: “We took Vinndication and Wandrin Star to Newbury early yesterday morning, and sadly I was not happy with the way Vinndication went, so Cheltenham for him this year will be missed.

“(It is) so frustrating for all his owners. He is a still a weak and immature horse, and it is showing. There will be other big days for him.”