Amy Murphy says she has no plans to rush Kalashnikov back into action as her star continues his recovery from burst blood vessels.
The seven-year-old announced himself at the top level when handing Murphy’s Newmarket yard their maiden Grade One success by winning the Devenish Manifesto Novices’ Chase at Aintree in April 2019.
That was quickly followed up in the autumn of that year with successive second-place finishes in handicap chases, including the Grade Two Old Roan Chase, which was also ran at Aintree.
However, Kalashnikov appeared to lose his way after that, finishing well off the pace in both the Paddy Power Handicap Chase at Cheltenham and the Game Spirit Chase at Newbury earlier this year.
There were extenuating circumstances for those under par displays, as the gelding was found to have burst blood vessels in both races and he has not been seen competitively since.
Kalashnikov is now on the comeback trail, although Murphy is keen not to rush her stable star back into action and she will instead be taking her time before plotting his return to racing.
“He’s fine, he’s only just started to gallop so we’ve nothing much to report as of yet,” Murphy told reporters. “Touch wood it’s been so far, so good.
“We haven’t put him under any pressure yet, so we can’t really know where we’re at. But so far he’s been fine.
“He burst (a blood vessel) badly twice, but there was nothing underlying. For the meantime we’ll just continue to bring him along slowly and see how we go.”
