Racing Demon set for Ascot return
Knight let the King George VI Chase third take his chance in the Lanzarote Hurdle in an attempt to speed up his jumping but the plan backfired when he fell at the fourth last.
“At the moment the plan is still to take him for the Ascot Chase on February 17. He has had a bit of a break since his last run and he is back working now,” said Knight.
“He nearly jumps fences too well. He jumps more like a show jumper than a racehorse.
“You don’t want them to spend too much time in the air as they lose so much ground. The idea to run him over hurdles was to get him a bit quicker and everything was going well until he hit the deck.
“I still think he is very good but like a lot of these horses, he needs everything to go right,” she said.
“I think it might be just a year too early for the Gold Cup but it just depends how the other race (Ryanair Chase) cuts up and we will see where he is going nearer the time when we see where the others are going.”
Meanwhile, Material World is set to flex her muscles ahead of the Cheltenham Festival in Saturday’s totescoop6 Sandown Handicap Hurdle at the Esher venue.
Suzy Smith considered sending her one-eyed stable star over fences after she scored at Prestbury Park on her reappearance over timber in December.
But those plans were temporarily put on hold after she met with a small setback at home.
“She was going to go chasing and over-reached while schooling at home over fences,” explained Smith.
“We don’t want her to have just one run over fences before Cheltenham so that will have to wait, but it’s still on the cards.
Of this weekend’s contest, in which Smith could also be represented by Golden Bay, she added: “At the moment they are both set to go and Material World is pretty much a definite.
“There are so few races she can actually go for now but we’ll make a decision on Wednesday after their last piece of work.
“She’s been out for a while but she’s well in herself now and we just want to give her one more run before Cheltenham.
“If she won or went up in the weights then we might go for the World Hurdle and, if not, she’ll go for the Pertemps (Handicap Hurdle).”
Golden Bay has not been seen since chasing home Maharbal in a competitive race on St Stephen’s Day.
“It was her best run so far and she’d have no weight in this race, which is the main thing with her as she’s not very big,” Smith said.
“We may run her too as we’d like her to go for the Coral Cup and it’s just a case of trying to get her up in the weights a bit – it’s not often you want to do that!
“Colin Bolger will ride Material World and hopefully we’ll try and get Daryl Jacob for Golden Bay.”
