Drying ground set to scupper Notre’s National bid
Winner of the Welsh National at Chepstow earlier in the season, he arguably produced a career-best in the Irish Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup when beaten only five lengths by Neptune Collonges.
Dreaper had to skip Cheltenham with the eight-year-old as he was not quite 100% and fast ground looks like forcing him to miss the Easter weekend showpiece.
“He had a minor problem just before Cheltenham and ever since the day at Chepstow he has had a tiny piece of birch embedded in his stifle area and it just flared up a fortnight before the Gold Cup,” said Dreaper.
“He would have had very little chance on that kind of ground anyway.
“I’m afraid it is looking pretty unlikely he’ll run at Fairyhouse, the forecast rain hasn’t come, it is good ground and the worrying thing is that it will be dry through to Monday which I would think will rule him out.
“He does go on nice ground but it’s just that he is more effective when there is plenty of cut.
“He’s only eight and I would hope the best is yet to come, so for that reason I don’t think we’ll take a chance.
“It is amazing the number of horses you go through before you come up with a proper horse so there is no need for us to take a chance with him,” he told At The Races.
Meanwhile Tom Cooper’s Arkle hero Forpadydeplasterer may tackle more experienced rivals in the Kerrygold Champion Chase at the Punchestown Festival on April 28.
The seven-year-old had his form boosted by the impressive victory of Kalahari King at Aintree last week and Cooper is considering letting him take his chance outside of novice company, although the Cathal Ryan Memorial Novice Chase is another option.
“We gave Forpadydeplasterer a speculative entry in the Kerrygold Champion Chase, we were leaning towards the novice chase but I could well be tempted to run him in the Champion,” said Cooper.
“He’s in super order at the moment and I couldn’t have been more pleased with his run at Cheltenham. Everything came together for us on the day and he won really well.
“The form has been given a boost with Kalahari King’s victory at Aintree last weekend and Cooldine’s win in the RSA Chase didn’t do us any harm either.
“We would possibly have a bit to find on the official ratings in the Champion Chase but Forpadydeplasterer deserves to take his chance.
“He could go over further in the future but my plan throughout the season has to been to keep him at two miles – he’s a big horse and I felt that the more time we gave him, the better.
“The ideal situation would be to have ground similar as we had a Cheltenham but, as long as it’s decent jumping ground, then he should line up in either race at Punchestown.”
Queen Mother Champion Chase hero Master Minded was notable among the absentees, and his trainer Paul Nicholls told Teletext: “We haven’t entered Master Minded at Punchestown, the idea is that he will go to Sandown, ground permitting.
“The only thing I will say is that if the ground was soft and it looked like being soft at Punchestown, we can supplement him at the six-day stage.
“At the moment we only have intentions to go to Sandown, but if we did have a really wet spell, we have always got the Irish option.”
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