Bay bids for glory in Challow
The five-year-old was a brilliant winner of his bumper at Exeter in February and he has continued to impress since taking to obstacles, winning impressively at Chepstow, Cheltenham and Sandown in Grade Two company.
He tests the water at Grade One level for the first time this weekend but with the soft ground in his favour, Hobbs is confident his charge can continue his excellent run.
“He’s in good form and he’s obviously done nothing wrong over hurdles so far,” said Hobbs.
“We were a bit concerned about the ground being too fast the time before last at Cheltenham, but we won’t have any worries on that score (today).”
Fingal Bay is already prominent in ante-post lists for the big novice hurdles at Cheltenham and Hobbs does not expect this to be his last run before the March Festival.
“We’ll see what happens before we decide whether he’s likely to have another run before Cheltenham,” the trainer added.
“My gut feeling at the moment is that he probably will have another run somewhere, but a lot can happen in the next couple of months, so we’ll see.”
Martin Keighley’s Hard To Swallow was in the process of running a big race behind Fingal Bay in October’s Persian War Novices’ Hurdle at Chepstow when suffering a crunching fall at the second last.
Keighley admits it has taken a while to get his charge back on song, but he is optimistic of his chances on Saturday.
“It was a very nasty fall at Chepstow and he is probably lucky to still be with us after that,” said Keighley.
“He hasn’t run since as it has taken us a while to get him sound and get him right again, but he’s been working well lately and I’m hopeful he can put up a bold show.
“I think he would have been a good second to Fingal Bay last time and if he can do the same again, I’d be delighted.
“He hasn’t really run on soft ground before so I’m not sure how he’ll handle it, but hopefully he’ll be all right.”
