O'Neill won't gamble on Black Jack
Jonjo O’Neill would be unfazed if Black Jack Ketchum heads to the Cheltenham Festival without a prep run.
Last season’s unbeaten Brit Insurance Hurdle winner is a 4-5 chance with the sponsors to win the Ladbrokes World Hurdle at Prestbury Park.
Although Black Jack Ketchum is pencilled in to have a prior run in the Cleeve Hurdle at Cheltenham, O’Neill is not too concerned if the ground goes against him on Saturday week.
He said: “Hopefully the Cleeve Hurdle will be Black Jack Ketchum’s prep race for the World Hurdle as he seems very well in himself.
“If it’s soft for the Cleeve he will take his chance, but if it came up heavy he would not, as dragging the guts out of him on bottomless (ground) six weeks before his main target would not be very clever.
“However, if the worst came to the worst and he did not get a run in the Cleeve, it would not bother me unduly.
“He went to the Festival after a long break last season and won,” O’Neill told the Racing Post.
