Ground the key to Harchibald plans
Harchibald, who recently secured his second victory in Kempton’s Christmas Hurdle in dramatic style, could well be on the way back to Leopardstown for a crack at the Irish Champion Hurdle.
Of his Kempton win, Meade said: “I was at home watching the race on television. I was hoping he was going to win but it will always be arguable because Punjabi was going very well when he fell. I don’t know, but Paul (Carberry) thought he had him covered anyway.”
In the meantime, Harchibald has returned home with a real spring in his step.
“He’s in good shape after Kempton, he came home well. Whenever he runs on good-ish ground he always comes home good.”
Harchibald is a horse who does things very much his own way and has earned a place in his trainer’s heart.
“He’s one of my favourites of all time anyway because he’s a horse with a tremendous amount of talent and he has created a huge amount of publicity whether it’s been good or bad, but he is a bit of a star,” said Meade.
However, the ten-year-old won’t be running if the ground isn’t right.
Meade continued: “If the ground came up good-ish or good to yielding he’ll probably head to the Irish Champion Hurdle. Cheltenham all depends on the ground.
“I won’t run him on the ground that he had there last year. We’ll see what happens. If we have a dry spring and the ground turns up good, he will run at Cheltenham.”
Meanwhile Jered, who has been a revelation for connections since racing over hurdles, now has his objectives for the on-going season.
The Grade 1 winner made an impressive start to the new campaign at Down Royal back in October. However the time after he was slightly disappointing when never really making an impact in inadequate conditions behind Hardy Eustace at Punchestown.
Since then, he has been resting up, but is now back and ready to go according to his trainer. “He’s ok,” said Meade. “He actually went back down to Martinstown for a bit of a break after his last run but he has come back and he looks great!”
For his future assignments, it appears that Jered may have a clash or two with his enigmatic but very talented stablemate Harchibald. Meade said, “He’s very strong so he’ll be trained for the spring. I haven’t actually spoken to J P (McManus) lately but I presume that he wants to go towards the Champion Hurdle and the race in Punchestown afterwards. They’d be the two routes we are thinking to go.”
McManus also is to be represented at Cheltenham with Champion Hurdle favourite Binocular.
