Knight in Kempton check for Mate
The trainer said yesterday she remained keen to run the dual Tote Cheltenham Gold Cup hero at Kempton in a bid to follow up his success of 12 months ago in the £160,000 contest.
However, the alternative lure of a trip across the Irish Sea for the Ericsson Chase at Leopardstown two days later means that connections must be sure they are making the right choice before Best Mate lines up at either venue.
Repeating her previous comments that the seven-year-old would bypass Kempton in the event of conditions proving either too firm or too testing, Knight maintained the King George remained her preferred option.
"We certainly wouldn't want the word 'firm' to be in the official report," she said.
"We ran him on fast ground before and he got jarred on it and was all stomped up afterwards.
"I can't believe it is going to be soft, but having said that I had thought the same about Huntingdon last time and look what happened there.
"I would say I am still 60-40 in favour of Kempton, but we are going to do what is best for the horse.
Should Best Mate be forced to dodge Kempton, Knight's husband Terry Biddlecombe confirmed that stablemate Edredon Bleu could step into the breach.
Having had an easy day in the paddock on Sunday, Best Mate did only a light exercise spin yesterday morning as Knight opened up her gallops to journalists.
But there was no disguising the fact that there will be no excuses if Best Mate fails to do the business, wherever he lines up over the Christmas week.
"We haven't had a single problem with him since Huntingdon," Knight said.
"He canters most days and tomorrow I am hoping to take him over to Mick Channon's to work on his grass gallops, but we will have to see whether it is too dry.
"He often does some jumping and we might even school him the day before he next runs.
"We try to get him as fit as we can before every race he has."
Knight reflected on Best Mate's Huntingdon run last month, when her charge had no answer to French challenger Jair Du Cochet who he is set to re-oppose at Kempton in the closing stages.
"I thought before the race that I had him 100 per cent fit, but maybe he was still ring-rusty. What I would say is that Jair Du Cochet had had two races already this season and although you can try to get them fit at home, you can't give them the sort of mental edge which having a race gives you.
"Also, it wasn't three miles, and as he gets older he needs more of a test. He likes an uphill finish now and tracks like Huntingdon and even Kempton - will not play so much to his strengths.
"But there are so few races we can run in that we have to go where we can. If you take the handicaps out, then there isn't much left.
"I was looking at the ante-post prices for the Gold Cup and there are a lot of good horses coming through this season. But they have all got to be ready on the day in March. That is a very hard thing to do."
