Cheltenham Countdown: Road To Riches has racecourse spin ahead of Irish Gold Cup
Third in the Cheltenham Gold Cup last season, Meade’s stable star had to miss his Christmas engagement in the Lexus Chase with a minor setback.
All roads now lead to Leopardstown and then Cheltenham, where Meade has not totally ruled out the Ryanair Chase.
“It wasn’t a serious piece of work (at Fairyhouse), more a case of taking him away from home,” said Meade on At The Races..
“The ground was very tacky, he likes being in front and likes jumping so we let him go round on his own – he went about a mile and a half.
“He worked on the grass on Tuesday at home, a mile and a half again, and I’m delighted with him, he’s in good shape.
“After that piece he seems pretty ready, he’ll do a bit next week and that should leave him right. He’s not a horse that takes a lot of work.
“I hope he wouldn’t switch targets, but one never knows. I would think it will be the Gold Cup, he was third in it last year and only lost second in the last 100 yards.
“It would appear to be the race to go for, but Michael (O’Leary, owner) asked me to put him in the Ryanair so he’s in that as well, so all options are open.
“With so many Gigginstown horses with chances in the Gold Cup, they have to keep all options open.”
- Jonjo O’Neill is hoping an appearance in Sandown’s Betfred TV Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase on February 6 will provide More Of That with some more valuable experience.
The 2014 World Hurdle winner has been flawless over fences in two starts this season, sparking talk of a possible Gold Cup bid.
While those plans have been shelved, O’Neill is still excited about the future.
“He’s in good form, we’re hoping to run him in the Scilly Isles at Sandown and hopefully that will be it before Cheltenham if everything goes well,” he said.
“I think we were all getting carried away, me included, when talking about the Gold Cup. When we all sat down and talked about it we thought, as a novice he can go for the two-and-a-half-mile (JLT) or the RSA, which is probably what he’ll go for so we decided to be sensible.
“We were thrilled with him before his first run, he’d schooled brilliantly from day one. We were confident, the only thing that worried me was when he came under pressure heading to the second-last because he’d had a wind operation but it didn’t seem to bother him at all.
“His next race was a Mickey Mouse race really, a non-event, but he jumped well and did his job, we were all happy.
“Then the ground came really bad and I didn’t want to run him as he’s a good mover so we decided to leave him all January and take him to Sandown.
“It’s experience I’m trying to get into him, really.”
Stablemate Taquin Du Seuil remains on course for the Festival, despite having initially been ruled out for the campaign earlier in the season.
“He’s coming along really well and hopefully he’ll get to Cheltenham,” said O’Neill.
“Ideally I’d like to run him before but we’ll see, it would be great if we could but if not we’ll do plenty at home, I’d be happy going fresh.
“I’d say it will be the two-and-a-half-mile handicap (Brown Advisory Plate) for him.”
- Barters Hill, arguably the best chance of a British-trained winner in the novice hurdles at Cheltenham against the Willie Mullins battalion, will tune up at Doncaster this weekend.
Trainer Ben Pauling had also given his stable star an option over two and a half miles at Cheltenham on Saturday in the Neptune Investment Management Novices’ Hurdle.
However, he has opted instead to head north for Doncaster in the race better know as the River Don, now run as the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle over three miles, in the hope of getting better ground.
Pauling tweeted: “Looking at the weather forecast for the next few days I have decided Barters Hill will run at @DoncasterRaces for his @cheltenham prep run.” Barters Hill has already won a Grade One this season, when powering away with the Challow Hurdle at Newbury.
- Nigel Twiston-Davies is convinced The New One will be a player in the Stan James Champion Hurdle granted decent ground.
The eight-year-old had his final public appearance before heading for the Cheltenham showpiece for the third year running when recording back-to-back wins in the Champion Hurdle Trial at Haydock on Saturday.
However, the manner of the victory did not impress all the pundits, but Twiston-Davies put that down to the heavy ground.
“He’s 100 per cent, really good. It will dry up one day for The New One and you will see him at his sparkling best,” said the Naunton handler.
“I was delighted. Reading in the press, they said what a bad race it was and then I looked at his form and everything. He’s won £722,000, he’s never been beaten more than eight lengths as he was in the Champion Hurdle last year, but yet he’s said to be useless!
“He’s been quite unbelievable for us – 16 wins out of 23 races.
“We keep saying he doesn’t like that sort of ground. He really accelerates on good ground and he’s going straight to the Champion now.”
The New One is around a 20-1 shot for the Champion on March 15.
Twiston-Davies meanwhile is leaning towards the JLT Novices’ Chase for Bristol De Mai despite giving him two other entries at the Cheltenham Festival.
