WATCH: Cave Article gets checked over by the vet following a difficult run at Southwell
19 May 2026
Following Cave Article being pulled up during his run at Southwell last week, combined with the post-race comments from jockey, Jack Tudor, Christian Williams called the vet to his South Wales yard to get him checked over.
Cave Article started the race in good order, keeping tabs on the leading runners in the field whilst jumping his fences well. His race began to look like it had been run during the last circuit, where he began to slow down before the 13th fence, having dragged his hind legs through a couple of the obstacles before hand. He then weakened further as he approached the 14th and Jack Tudor eventually made the decision to pull Cave Article up with four flights left to take, when it was clear our seven-year-old had no more to give.
WATCH: Jack Tudor reflects on possible reasons for Cave Article's tough run at Southwell
Having seen the way Cave Article ran, and after hearing the immediate feedback from Jack Tudor, Christian Williams called the vet into the yard in the days following, in order to check Cave Article over to find out if there were any underlying issues.
WATCH: Cave Article gets checked over by veterinarian, John Edwards
We caught up with the vet, John Edwards, a few days later after he had looked over Cave Article a couple of times, to find out what could've been the cause of the problems at Southwell. He told us that Cave Article was sore in his pelvis, which you can see being tested in the video above, and that when he's trotting in a straight line he has quite a weak hind limb action. The nature of that will have also added pressure to the pelvic joint that's causing Cave Article some pain. The vet also noticed that Cave Article was lame after he had his hocks flexed, so he treated that and recommended that he take around a month off before we reassess to see if the treatment on the hocks has alleviated the pain in his pelvic joints too.
Following his rest, the Christian Williams team will look at doing some slow uphill work with Cave Article to strengthen his hind quarters, which should help to stop this kind of issue from occurring again.
We'll get a further update from the team in South Wales once Cave Article has had time to recover from the treatment, and to see what the next steps with him might be as we look towards the rest of the summer campaign.
Cave Article started the race in good order, keeping tabs on the leading runners in the field whilst jumping his fences well. His race began to look like it had been run during the last circuit, where he began to slow down before the 13th fence, having dragged his hind legs through a couple of the obstacles before hand. He then weakened further as he approached the 14th and Jack Tudor eventually made the decision to pull Cave Article up with four flights left to take, when it was clear our seven-year-old had no more to give.
WATCH: Jack Tudor reflects on possible reasons for Cave Article's tough run at Southwell
Having seen the way Cave Article ran, and after hearing the immediate feedback from Jack Tudor, Christian Williams called the vet into the yard in the days following, in order to check Cave Article over to find out if there were any underlying issues.
WATCH: Cave Article gets checked over by veterinarian, John Edwards
We caught up with the vet, John Edwards, a few days later after he had looked over Cave Article a couple of times, to find out what could've been the cause of the problems at Southwell. He told us that Cave Article was sore in his pelvis, which you can see being tested in the video above, and that when he's trotting in a straight line he has quite a weak hind limb action. The nature of that will have also added pressure to the pelvic joint that's causing Cave Article some pain. The vet also noticed that Cave Article was lame after he had his hocks flexed, so he treated that and recommended that he take around a month off before we reassess to see if the treatment on the hocks has alleviated the pain in his pelvic joints too.
Following his rest, the Christian Williams team will look at doing some slow uphill work with Cave Article to strengthen his hind quarters, which should help to stop this kind of issue from occurring again.
We'll get a further update from the team in South Wales once Cave Article has had time to recover from the treatment, and to see what the next steps with him might be as we look towards the rest of the summer campaign.
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