Gifford bullish over Bear

Nick Gifford is hopeful the best is still to come from Straw Bear as the five-year-old gears up for his biggest test to date at Sandown on Saturday.

The impressive winner of his two starts over timber, the JP McManus-owned gelding is to try and land a hat-trick in the Anglo Irish Bank Commercial Property Lending Novices’ Hurdle.

“The plan is to run. Obviously, we would all like to get another run into him but if for some reason we couldn’t, we’d be happy to go straight to Cheltenham,” Gifford told the Racing Post.

“The ground shouldn’t be a problem. I just wouldn’t want it to dry up, but that doesn’t seem likely.

“This is bound to be a better race than he has contested so far but our horse is as good as quite a few of the leading Cheltenham contenders. I don’t think we have seen anywhere near the best of him yet. Hopefully there is improvement to come.”