O’Neill sounds Black Jack warning

BLACK Jack Ketchum’s trainer Jonjo O’Neill would have no qualms about pulling his budding superstar out of the Ladbrokes World Hurdle if the ground remains as it is at Cheltenham.

Last month’s Byrne Bros Cleeve Hurdle at the track, run on heavy ground, was the scene of the gelding’s first ever racecourse defeat when he was a lifeless fifth behind Blazing Bailey.

O’Neill was unable to find anything medically or physically wrong with Black Jack Ketchum (above right), and with the ground currently soft on the Old Course and soft, heavy in places on the New, he is definitely hoping for things to dry up.