Golden Cross bids to stake Cheltenham claim
Michael Halford’s seven-year-old ran Solerina to a short head at Fairyhouse in December having won a handicap hurdle at Leopardstown and a Flat event at the Curragh on his previous two starts.
Those were his first outings since finishing seventh in the 2004 Champion Hurdle and Halford will make a decision on a Festival run after this weekend’s Grade One contest.
“He’s working well and is generally in good form,” said the Curragh-based handler.
“Johnny Murtagh rides him on Sunday and depending how he runs, we’ll make a decision on his Festival target after that.
“We’ve been thinking of upping him in trip but he missed his engagement as he didn’t scope 100%.
“Sunday is a good opportunity to see if he has the speed for two miles or if we need to go up to three.”
Golden Cross is entered in the Smurfit Champion Hurdle and the Ladbrokes World Hurdle at Cheltenham, with Coral quoting him as a 40-1 and 10-1 chance respectively.
Meanwhile, Travino, a leading contender for the Cheltenham Festival, looks set to take his chance in the P.J Walls Golden Cygnet Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown on Sunday.
The Grade One winner also has the option of the Lily O’Briens Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham on Saturday but trainer Mags Mullins believes the ground could turn against her stable star.
“It’s not looking good at Cheltenham,” said Mullins. “The forecast is for pretty dry weather for the rest of the week so I’m leaning towards Leopardstown at the minute.
“It’s not 100% yet and he isn’t scheduled to leave until tomorrow afternoon but it looks like he’ll be staying over here.
“I’ve spoken to the clerk of the course (Simon Claisse) today and he says it’s drying out all the time and he would describe it as fast today.
“I’m not quite sure yet but it’s starting to look like Leopardstown.”
Despite Mullins having reservations, she still has not totally ruled out bringing the seven-year-old over to England ahead of a possible crack at the Royal & SunAlliance Novices’ Hurdle in March.
“I would love to send him over to Cheltenham. It would be a great test for him travelling over and he would gain course experience for March,” she added.
“I don’t want to run him on firm ground though. I haven’t made a positive decision yet so we’ll see.
“He’s going to be a grand chaser in the long term and we always said that whatever he did this year would be a bonus.”
Tom Mullins has ruled Ladbrokes World Hurdle candidate Asian Maze out of any possible engagements over the next few days and is now looking to give her a prep race next month.
Mullins is coming down in favour of running his crack mare in the stayers’ race at the Festival rather than the Smurfit Champion Hurdle, but the seven-year-old will not be seen out this weekend.
“I am happy with her but not happy enough for her to run tomorrow,” said Mullins, after Asian Maze failed to appear among the declarations for the Alo Duffin Memorial Galmoy Hurdle at Gowran.
“There are no major problems with her but I don’t think it would do her any good to run. Cheltenham this weekend is unlikely too - but that might be off anyway - and there is talk about a race at Fairyhouse next month which Solerina might run in.
“There is also the Red Mills at Gowran and a couple of others to consider and while time is running out, things are cool at the moment.”
Mullins would be content to head to Cheltenham with just one run under Asian Maze’s belt, with his dual Grade One winner a general 9-1 chance for the World Hurdle.
“If I only got the one run into her before Cheltenham that would be grand and would do the trick; she wouldn’t need two,” he added.
“I would say she is 80-20 in favour of going for the World Hurdle and the ground doesn’t bother her too much - although she might just prefer it yielding to soft rather.”
* The minimum Flat racing weight in Ireland will rise to 8st 4lbs at the start of the new season.
