Knight keeps faith despite Best Mate’s defeat
Although the gelding sported stitches to a long cut under his left eye, Miss Knight believes that the main reason for his seven-length defeat to Beef Or Salmon in the Lexus Chase was the going, officially described as “soft to heavy”.
“Provided that we do not get the ground at Cheltenham that we had yesterday he will run very well,” she told Sky Sports News.
“We have a nice long time to prepare him, to raise his spirits and to mend him for the big day. People should not lose heart - he is still a very good horse.
Best Mate suffered his cut when banging his head on the ferry over to Ireland, and although his Wantage-based trainer felt it could have had some sort of effect to his performance, she felt that he was able to start, and the ground was the deciding factor.
“It went through my mind not to run him, but when you have travelled to Ireland, and all the public have turned out to see him, you have got to be sportsman-like and it was not going to hurt him to run,” she continued.
“It could well have given him quite a headache - the cut in itself was not bad but it is not the sort of thing you would want if you were about to take part in a championship race.
“I would not say it had a major impact, but it could have had a bit of an impact, and it must have been a fair bang to have split down the side like it did.
“I think overall it was probably the fact that they had had so much rain and he could not get his feet out of the mud, which he had never been able to do before either, so he is obviously a fair-weather sportsman!”
Meanwhile Tom Taaffe reports Stan James King George VI Chase hero Kicking King to be in “cracking form” after his St Stephen's Day heroics.
Taaffe said the horse was a little bit stiff after the race but that minor niggle now seems to have disappeared and Taaffe is delighted with the condition of his stable star.
“The horse is in cracking form today. You should have seen him this morning, he was bouncing out of his skin. He’s not stiff at all,” he said at Leopardstown.
Taaffe has definitely ruled out a crack at February’s Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup at Leopardstown and he plans to head straight for the Cheltenham Festival. But the trainer remains undecided as to whether to go for the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup or the Daily Telegraph Chase over the shorter trip.
Taaffe added: “I will make that decision in the first week of March.”
