Ground puts Arcalis bid in doubt
Arcalis, impressive winner of the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham last March, is far from certain to take his chance in the Champion Hurdle Trial at Haydock on Saturday.
Trainer Howard Johnson had hoped to use the Commhoist Logistics-sponsored contest as a stepping stone towards a tilt at the Champion Hurdle itself but the prevailing heavy ground will not favour the grey.
“I’ve worked all my horses this morning and they worked well but I’m concerned about the ground. They are not all runners at the minute,” Johnson told At The Races.
“Arcalis isn’t a non-runner at the moment but if it’s heavy he will not run, it’s as simple as that. He’ll go straight to the Champion Hurdle while he’s still in one piece. There aren’t many alternatives for him. He’s in the Totesport Gold Trophy but he’ll have too much weight.”
On his only racecourse appearance this season Arcalis was a hugely impressive winner of the Pertemps ‘Fighting Fifth’ Hurdle at Newcastle.
But Johnson says his charge will have to improve again to have a chance against the established stars from Ireland.
“He ran a fine race that day,” continued Johnson. “But it’s a different ball game when you get against the big boys from Ireland at Cheltenham. He’ll have to improve a little bit to beat Hardy Eustace and Brave Inca.”
Arcalis did win on soft at Newcastle but Johnson believes the ground at Haydock will be far more testing.
“We got away with the soft ground at Newcastle but Haydock is a different track, it’s very heavy at the minute at Haydock. He’s less likely than 50-50 to run at this stage.”
The race was reopened until 9.15am this morning and attracted one more runner in the Robert Gray-trained Overstrand, who was fourth in the Lanzarote Hurdle at Carlisle on Saturday.
Other possibles include the John Queally-trained Al Eile, who holds entries in the Champion Hurdle and the Ladbrokes World Hurdle.
However, the County Waterford handler also expressed his concern about the prospect of heavy ground.
“The intention is to to bring him over but we wouldn’t be too keen on running him on bottomless ground with it being his first run of the season,” he said.
“We ran him at the Royal Meeting at York and he got a bit jarred up on the ground there so we’ve given him plenty of time to get over it.”
Queally said he remains undecided as to the gelding’s ultimate target.
“We wouldn’t be worried about taking on the two-milers,” said Queally.
“He’ll get any trip. He ran well in the Champion last year and then he beat Inglis Drever over two and a-half miles at Aintree.
“We won’t be making a decision about his target on the back of Saturday though.
“Even though he is well, he’ll need the run and he’ll be meeting race-fit rivals.”
Nicky Richards has entered Triumph Hurdle runner-up Faasel, while Royal Shakespeare could also turn out in his quest for more Order of Merit points.
Castleford Chase winner Mister McGoldrick could revert to hurdles in a bid to go one better than 12 months ago when he finished runner-up to Inglis Drever.
Milligan, Leo’s Luckyman and Bob Justice complete the line-up.
