Flow connections play down return

CONNECTIONS of Strong Flow have again warned that the leading Cheltenham Gold Cup candidate will not be in peak condition when he makes his long-awaited racecourse return at Warwick today.

The 2003 Hennessy Gold Cup winner will be having a spin over hurdles at the Midlands track, but trainer Paul Nicholls has February’s Aon Chase at Newbury and then the totesport Gold Cup as his priorities.

Strong Flow cracked a bone in his knee during the Grade One Feltham Novices’ Chase at Kempton over a year ago but he still managed to win that race, and lines up for the Pertemps Handicap Hurdle (Series Qualifier).