Sunnyhill in Gold contention
Although not expected to be a contender to retain the title after Synchronised’s victory for the stable last year, it is more part of his preparation for the John Smith’s Grand National.
While the Gold Cup hero lost his life at Aintree, Sunnyhillboy was denied victory by only a nose.
He made a promising reappearance over hurdles at Haydock but was pulled up at Warwick last month.
“I’ve got him in the Pertemps, but there will be 28 runners there and I wouldn’t want anything to happen to him,” said O’Neill.
“I’m not sure where we’ll go, but the plan is really Aintree.
“He could well run at Cheltenham and there would be fewer runners in the Gold Cup so it might be an option.”
There will be plenty of other runners for the stable in the handicaps, but another leading fancy must be Taquin Du Seuil, winner of the Challow Hurdle at Newbury.
“He’d be my best chance in the two-and-a-half (Neptune), but it’s a hot race,” O’Neill said.
Old stager Albertas Run will be back to challenge for a third Ryanair Chase but did not exactly inspire in last weekend’s racecourse gallop at Kempton.
“He’s just OK,” O’Neill said.
“All being well, he’ll run, and he’s healthy, but is he as enthusiastic?”
The other runner in the showpiece races could be the enigmatic Get Me Out Of Here, last seen when pulled up on Boxing Day.
O’Neill said: “He’s in the Coral Cup and the World Hurdle, we haven’t decided which way to go but I’d like to try him over three miles again and we might well go down the stayers’ route.”
Meanwhile possible rain towards the end of next week should mean Cheltenham clerk of the course Simon Claisse will not have to water the ground ahead of the Festival.
Claisse’s recent suggestion that watering could be a possibility, despite the extraordinarily wet winter, came as a surprise, but it has been drying out quickly in his part of the Cotswolds.
“We’ve had very little rain in the last couple of weeks, and last Wednesday I said that if it continued to dry out I would be saying the ground is good to soft.
“But since last Wednesday it has been exceptionally cold and grey and it would only take tiny amounts of rain to make a difference to the ground.
“At the moment, each track is good to soft, soft in places, but as we move into next week we lose the frosts and start to see temperatures climbing.
“But between next Thursday and the start of the first race, a range of between 15 and 18 millimetres of rain is forecast.
“A lot can change, but if the forecast is right, we will not be watering.”
