LEADING IRISH HURDLER Go Native has been put down after breaking a leg on the gallops this morning, trainer Noel Meade confirmed.

Best remembered for winning the Supreme Novices Hurdle at Cheltenham in 2009, the nine-year-old looked to be coming back to his best this season following a long spell out of action with injury.

“We’re all in a state of shock at the moment,” Meade said (Sky Sports).

“He was just doing a very steady canter. I was stood about 100 yards away from him and all of a sudden I heard this almighty crack and he’d somehow broken his leg above the hock.

We are all completely devastated. It’s cruel blow for his owners and everyone in the yard.

Following a flat win in Galway last month, Go Native ran over jumps for the first time in 31 months in the Grade 1 Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown last weekend, disputing the lead with eventual winner Hurricane Fly before crashing out at the last fence.

He showed no ill-effects from the injury afterwards and Meade considered sending him to Newcastle for next month’s Fighting Fifth Hurdle, a race he won in 2009.