Ptit Zig to stay over hurdles this season
The seven-year-old has a clutch of Grade Two successes over fences to his name but following a couple of blunders on his two most recent chase outings, connections switched back to the smaller obstacles.
While the Paul Nicholls-trained Ptit Zig finished some 12 lengths adrift of effortless winner Thistlecrack, part-owner Barry Fulton thought the experience could well sharpen him up for a possible tilt at next month’s World Hurdle.
He said: “I thought he didn’t jump as well as perhaps he can, he just lost a little bit of ground at a hurdle or two, probably because he has been racing over fences.
“Paul thought he could jump better, be a little slicker at his hurdles, and better ground would also suit him more.
“We will stick to hurdles this season now and I suppose the World Hurdle would be the place to go.
“There aren’t a lot of options with him — he is quite hard to place with his rating. There is also Aintree but the gap between Cheltenham is a bit shorter this year, so I would imagine it would be one or the other.”
- Tomorrow’s Ludlow’s meeting must survive an 8am inspection this morning. The going at the Shropshire track is heavy after 44 millimetres of rain over Saturday and Sunday.
A further 8mm fell on Monday on top of already saturated ground, but the course was due some respite overnight.
