Victoria Pendleton’s Cheltenham Festival dreams have suffered a potential jolt with the dual Olympic gold medal winner unseated in a point-to-point race.
Just days after winning her first race as a jockey at Wincanton, the former champion cyclist was riding the Alan Hill-trained Supreme Danehill when she lost a stirrup after jumping the third fence from the finish and came out of the saddle.
Hill’s wife, Lawney, has been one of Pendleton’s chief mentors during her Betfair-backed ‘Switching Saddles’ challenge since it was announced last March that she would make the transition from velodrome to racecourse.
“Unfortunately she’s had a fall, but she got up and walked away and is perfectly all right,” Hill said.
“The horse pitched on landing after jumping the third-last. She did well to stay in the saddle, but unfortunately she lost one of her irons, became unbalanced and gravity won.
“It was a novice mistake and these things can happen with novice riders.
“It was something only an experienced rider would have been able to cope with.”
A press conference will be held on Monday to announce whether or not Pendleton will fulfil her ambition to ride Wincanton winner Pacha Du Polder in the St James’s Place Foxhunter Chase at Cheltenham later this month.
