![\"Harry](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1_RACING-ENG-CHELTENHAM.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBen Pauling’s trainee was right in contention in the 2026 Cheltenham Gold Cup before he weakened with two fences to go. Due to have a wind operation, the eight-year-old chaser has to recover from another hold-up first<\/p>\n
Harry Redknapp with The Jukebox Man(Image: DARREN STAPLES, AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The Jukebox Man is suffering from a mystery muscle injury that has thrown an intended Punchestown rematch with Cheltenham Gold Cup hero Gaelic Warrior into doubt.<\/p>\n
The Harry Redknapp-owned eight-year-old had been due to undergo a wind operation after making a respiratory noise before returning eighth of nine finishers in the Cheltenham Festival<\/a> feature nine days ago.<\/p>\n But trainer Ben Pauling revealed The Jukebox Man to have sustained a muscle problem that is threatening to end his season.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was OK the day after the Gold Cup but then was noticeably off on his near-fore,\u201d said Pauling.<\/p>\n \u201cBasically, the chiropractors and massage team have been in and he has pulled his bicep and his pectoral pretty badly. I have no idea where that has come from because the day before he was spot on.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Newsboy’s Saturday racing tips for ITV4 action from Newbury, Kelso and Bangor<\/a>READ MORE: Value Scope: Top each-way horse racing tips from Steve Jones for Saturday on ITV<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWhether he has got cast in his box, I don’t know but, when you put that with the fact we think he wants his soft palate tightening, it was amazing he went as far as he did in the Gold Cup.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a nutshell the dream was alive for a long way at Cheltenham and then came crashing down.\u201d<\/p>\n But Pauling hasn\u2019t given up hope The Jukebox Man will be fit to contest the Ladbrokes Punchestown Gold Cup on April 29.<\/p>\n \u201cWe still have time if he is right to go to Punchestown,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cThere’s very much a temptation to leave him alone and not run again this year but I would love another crack this season, if nothing more than just to try three miles again as it might determine how we campaign him next season.<\/p>\n \u201cI’ll want to make sure he is A1 before we go again as I don’t want to hurt a horse that tries that hard for you by putting them into too many battles when they are not fully ready to perform.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Pauling’s trainee was right in contention in the 2026 Cheltenham Gold Cup before he weakened with two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":839432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4107],"tags":[51246,213566,12513,288,1071,79,16,15],"class_list":["post-839431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-cheltenham-festival","tag-cheltenham-gold-cup","tag-harry-redknapp","tag-horse-racing","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116264046876497291","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}