Creek set to cross divide

Crossbow Creek faces the biggest test of his fledging chasing career when he clashes with leading Arkle Trophy hope Racing Demon at Sandown on Saturday.

Mark Rimell’s seven-year-old lines up for the Sodexho Prestige Henry VIII Novices’ Chase over two miles on only his second start over the big fences.

Henrietta Knight has declared the well-regarded Racing Demon for the Grade Two event, while Paul Nicholls runs Cerium and Hoo La Baloo.

Although Rimell believes it is an “exceptional” race, he remains hopeful Crossbow Creek can follow up on his recent Taunton debut win.

“He is quite a gassy horse and the worry first time out was that there might be no pace and he might pull too much,” said the Oxfordshire handler.

“But in fact, he did it quite well and that run will have helped take the fizz out of him and help him to settle better.

“The first race was the worrying one – I am more relaxed now because he jumped so well first time and we’ll just have to see if he’s good enough.

“The horses are in form though – we’ve had three winners from our last four runners.

“It’s an exceptional race and he will have run a blinder if he’s in the first three.”

Rimell’s only minor concern is the overnight rain, which has seen the ground turn good to soft, soft in places on the chase course.

“We wouldn’t want to see too much more rain for him but having said that, he’s a year older now and he could handle it that bit better,” he added.

Also declared for the race are Alan King’s Nyrche, who was an unlucky loser at Aintree last time, One Cornetto and Howard Johnson’s Iron Man, who will be having his first start over fences.