Rooster to carryon racing

ROOSTER BOOSTER will be kept in training next year for a “selective” campaign and is set for a quick reappearance in the Freephone Stanleybet Swinton Hurdle a week on Saturday.

Philip Hobbs’s popular grey was given a rousing reception by the Sandown crowd after his victory in the Concept Hurdle last week which, at the age of 11, had prompted talk of his retirement.

Although that was his first success for over 15 months and he had not been showing quite the form that brought him the 2003 Champion Hurdle, Hobbs and owner Terry Warner decided he is so keen on the gallops that he is best suited to racing rather than becoming a pet.