Altior is lame and at great risk of not being able to run in the Queen Mother Champion Chase at this week’s Cheltenham Festival. The bombshell news was broken on Sunday by Nicky Henderson as he arrived for his annual pre-Festival walk of the course.

Visibly deflated only three days after receiving his OBE at Buckingham Palace, Henderson said: “We’ve still got a chance. We’re using cold water on the leg, ice packs, the whole thing.

“I can’t put a percentage on it, that’s the one thing I can’t do. We’ve just got to hope he comes sound in time.”

Altior’s problem appears to lie in a splint, or bony growth on a leg. “He’s had the splint all his life but it’s never bothered him until this morning,” the trainer said.

The news puts at risk what had been built up as the most exciting race this week, the much anticipated clash of Altior, Defi Du Seuil and Chacun Pour Soi in Wednesday’s Champion Chase. Altior, winner of the race for the past two years, had been favourite at 2-1 but was immediately pushed out to 3-1 and those odds looked set to lengthen.

Henderson said that Might Bite’s participation in the cross-country chase was also in doubt, as he expects the going, currently soft, to be too testing for the horse.

Envoi Allen has been committed to the Ballymore Novice Hurdle on the Festival’s second day after his trainer, Gordon Elliott, walked the track on Sunday morning. The Irishman spoke last week of his concerns, based on wet weather, that he would find the going to be heavy, in which case the horse would have been switched to the shorter Supreme Novice Hurdle on Tuesday.

“It’s beautiful ground,” Elliott told the Guardian as he watched some of his horses stretch their legs at the track at 8.30am. “It’s probably soft, it would be yielding to soft in Ireland.

“There’s a lovely covering of grass, track’s in great condition. The whole team have the place in good condition for the weather they’ve had and I’ll not be complaining.”

Elliott conceded that the wet winter might still mean the ground presents a significant test, at least for the first-day action on Tuesday. But he added: “Obviously, there’s some want it better, some want it softer. But the way it is, it is. We’re here now, we won’t complain.”

After walking the track and speaking to the owners I’ve decided to run ENVOI ALLEN in the ballymore novice hurdle on Wednesday @CheltenhamRaces @CPStudOfficial @irishracing @RacingPost @BetfairRacing @RacingTV pic.twitter.com/MpBF8hrhiq — Gordon Elliott (@gelliott_racing) March 8, 2020

Envoi Allen was 11-8 favourite for the Ballymore after Elliott’s announcement, made through Twitter. The horse had gone out to 5-2 on Betfair’s exchange after the note of caution struck by the trainer at a preview evening on Thursday night.

Elliott has a small group of horses stabled at Cheltenham already, including the five horses he said he would declare for Tuesday’s races – Abacadabras, Elwood, Coeur Sublime, Galvin and Ravenhill. Envoi Allen and Tiger Roll are among a second wave of his horses expected to arrive on Sunday night.

Quick Guide Monday tips Show Kempton

1.55 Latent Heat 2.30 Artillery 3.05 Furqaan 3.40 Broughton Sunpearl 4.15 Enthaar 4.50 Gold Standard Plumpton

2.00 Annual Invictus 2.35 Vicenzo Mio 3.10 Minella Daddy 3.45 River Arrow 4.20 Midnight Calamity 4.55 Champion Chase Stratford

2.10 Elysian Flame 2.45 Darling Alko 3.20 Looks Like Power 3.55 Tidal Flow 4.30 Rootless Tree 5.05 Fixe Le Kap 5.35 Staithes Taunton

2.20 Glajou 2.55 Grand Slam 3.30 Peterborough 4.05 Nineohtwooneoh (nap) 4.40 Seaston Spirit 5.15 Ballybreen (nb) 5.50 Kilmington Rose Wolverhampton

5.40 Dragon Sun 6.10 Daafr 6.40 Night Voyager 7.10 Mooharreeba 7.40 Queen Aya 8.10 Effronte

Of Tiger Roll, the even-money favourite for Wednesday’s cross-country race, Elliott told RacingTV: “He’s in great nick, I couldn’t be happier with him. Hopefully he won’t be far away.” Tiger Roll is trying to win at the Festival for the fifth time, on his way to Aintree next month where connections hope he can win a third Grand National.

The official going is soft all round, backed up by a GoingStick reading of 5.6 taken on Sunday morning, lower and therefore softer than last Wednesday’s 6.2. There was 4mm of rain overnight into Sunday and the same again is expected before Tuesday but the forecast from then is for drying weather, with strong winds and rising temperatures.