Wednesday, January 18, 2012
ALAN KING is looking forward to seeing leading Triumph Hurdle fancy Grumeti make his second appearance over obstacles at Newbury today.
The Barbury Castle handler is particularly strong in the juvenile division this season, with this four-year-old having impressed on his National Hunt debut at Taunton last month.
He will have to concede weight to each of his seven rivals in the Berkshire Stand Bookshop Juvenile Hurdle, but his trainer is excited about getting him back on the track.
"I’ve been very happy with him since Taunton. He’s had two or three schools since then and everything has gone well," said King.
"He’s ready to have another run. It was a straight choice between Newbury tomorrow or running in a novice hurdle at Taunton on Thursday and I’ve decided to keep him against his own age group.
"We’re looking forward to running him again."
King welcomed stable jockey Robert Thornton back to the yard yesterday as he continues to recover from the broken arm he suffered in a fall at Hereford last month.
While his return to competitive action remains a while away, he sees a specialist next month, King was delighted to see Thornton back in the saddle on the gallops.
"Choc (Thornton) was in riding work. He actually gave Grumeti a breeze and it’s great to have him back in the yard," said King.
"He seems to be coming on well. He obviously doesn’t go back and see the specialist until early February, but it’s good to have him around the place again."
Meanwhile, Richard Johnson feels Wishfull Thinking represents good value in Saturday’s 25th Anniversary of the Victor Chandler Chase at Ascot.
The nine-year-old looked destined for the top following a brilliant novice campaign, but he proved a big disappointment on his return in the Paddy Power Gold Cup at Cheltenham and in Tingle Creek at Sandown.
Having gone off too fast on both occasions, Johnson adopted more waiting tactics on his next appearance in the Desert Orchid Chase at Kempton and it yielded a much better result as he finished a narrow second to Finian’s Rainbow, who he is set to tackle again this weekend.
"Since he disappointed in the Tingle Creek they’ve been dropping him in and following horses at home and at Kempton, he settled really well off a slow pace," Johnson told At The Races.
"He finished second to Finian’s Rainbow and it was a good run and obviously a massive improvement on his first two runs of the season.
"I think the tactic again will be to get him settled and switch him off early. Hopefully it will be a much faster run race.
"There are some good horses in it and it will be a real test and a find-out mission to see what his Cheltenham target will be.
Wishfull Thinking is available at 13-2 with Paddy Power for this weekend’s Grade One feature.
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