Faasel plan may be clearer after weekend

Nicky Richards is hoping Faasel’s performance in the totesport Premier Kelso Hurdle this weekend will help determine his Cheltenham Festival target.

Tony Dobbin will again be aboard the exciting 230,000gns purchase as he seeks to extend his unbeaten run to four in the Grade Two contest at the Scottish track.

“Everything has gone grand up to now – he has had his three runs and has done everything nicely,” Richards told At The Races.

The four-year-old, who was formerly trained in Ireland by Kevin Prendergast, has a choice of two entries at the Festival – the JCB Triumph Hurdle and the Fred Winter Juvenile Novices’ Handicap Hurdle, in which he has been allotted 11st 1lb.

“We’ll have to get Saturday out of the way and see how we go there before making any plans,” said the Cumbria-based handler. “I’d imagine that it will be a very competitive race.

“I’ll have a look at the novice handicap at Cheltenham and weigh all of the options up with Mr Ennis (his owner) a bit nearer the day.”

In addition to Faasel, Richards plans to send 11-year-old stable stalwart The French Furze to Cheltenham for the Ladbrokes World Hurdle, for which he is a 100-1 chance.

“He seems very well and has been a grand old servant over the years,” said Richards. “We’ll go down there and see how he goes, but he is in grand fettle and will do his best.”

However, Jazz D’Estruval is unlikely to make the long trip south for the Royal & SunAlliance Chase.

“He has done nicely up until now but the weather has just held us up a little bit race-wise as I would like to get another run into him somewhere,” said the Greystoke handler.

“But as regards the Festival he won’t run anywhere unless we get a good drop of rain, as he wants real soft, heavy ground.

“I was going to run him at Lingfield, but they just didn’t get enough rain down there and I was going to take him to Carlisle, but that was abandoned.

“I might run him at Market Rasen on Sunday (in the Racing UK Novices’ Chase) but by the sounds of it, that might be very doubtful.”

Richards’ Festival team could also include Broken Knights, who is entered in the Pertemps Final and has landed three of his six career starts.

“He ran in the qualifier race at Haydock but he unfortunately tipped up down the back,” Richards continued. “He came out of the race OK but I would have thought that he is going to be too far out of the handicap at Cheltenham, so we might have to give that a miss.”