WYE Valley trainer Venetia Williams will be without one of her top horses at March’s Cheltenham Festival after Djelo picked up an injury that has ruled him out for the rest of the season.

The chaser was a general 40-1 shot for the Cheltenham Gold Cup and 33-1 for the Ryanair Chase, with entries for both events revealed this week.

But the King’s Caple trainer said: "Unfortunately, Djelo will not have an entry at the Cheltenham Festival this year having sustained an injury that will require a period out of training.

"All being well he will return to the course in the autumn and attempt a third consecutive success in Huntingdon's Peterborough Chase."

The eight-year-old was last seen in the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day, where he jumped the third-last in contention before finishing fifth behind Harry Redknapp’s winner The Jukebox Man.

Djelo had won his previous two starts, in the Charlie Hall Chase and a second Peterborough Chase at the start of December.

But Williams will bid for another major prize at Warwick on Saturday with stable star L’Homme Press in the £100,000 Classic Chase.

The 10-year-old placed fourth in the 2024 Gold Cup after being bumped and injured at the second last when contesting the lead, and took third in the 2024 King George VI Chase after returning at the end of that year.

An operation early in 2025 then saw a 10-month break until last month, when Charlie Deutsch rode him to second in the Turners Handicap Chase at Cheltenham.

Meanwhile, former Bromsash trainer Michael Scudamore – who now co-trains in Scotland with Lucinda Russell, partner of his Hoarwithy-raised father, Peter Scudamore, the eight-time champion jump jockey – saw their 4/1 shot Traprain Law take the £30,000 William Hill Castleford Handicap Chase at Wetherby by 3L on December 27.