Orcadian heading to Sandown

James Eustace is aiming his dual-purpose performer Orcadian at the Group Three Betfred Gordon Richards Stakes at Sandown on Saturday.

Last seen when finishing 13th in the ultra-competitive Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, Eustace has mapped out another busy Flat campaign for the five-year-old.

The trainer side-stepped a run in the John Porter Stakes at Newbury in the belief that his charge shows better form on right-handed tracks.

“There’s nothing wrong with him, he’s actually in great form,” said Eustace.

“But since he ran at Cheltenham we’d aimed to drop him back in trip and run in the Gordon Richards at Sandown, not that we especially think he needs dropping in trip it’s just that it’s possible he is better right-handed.

“When he won round Windsor he went round there really well and Sandown is a front-runners track for whatever reason so we just felt that we might start him off in that race.

“We left him in the John Porter at the five-day stage in case it was soft and it looked a weak race but it was neither of those so we’ll stick to the original plan.

“We’ll certainly consider sending him hurdling again and to be honest it did him the world of good and it gave him something different to think about.

“When he won at Market Rasen what pleased me was the fact that he was headed and then battled back to win.

“He wasn’t disgraced at Cheltenham either, in fact at the top of the hill I thought we were in with a shout but he missed the flight at the bottom of the hill and you’re history if you do that at Cheltenham. I think they were very good horses as well (the first four).

“Jeff Smith (owner) is a Flat man really but we all said we’d consider doing it again in the Autumn.”