Ustedes showing the right spirit

Queen Mother Champion Chase favourite Voy Por Ustedes is in tip-top shape ahead of the totepool Game Spirit Chase on Saturday.

Alan King’s Arkle winner showed his well-being when claiming the Desert Orchid Chase at Kempton on his last start.

And with the Newbury event set to be his final start before his bid for the Seasons Holidays-sponsored championship at Cheltenham, the trainer could not be happier.

“He’s in very good form. Robert Thornton came down to school him yesterday morning and was delighted with him. He’s fresh and well and ready for a run,” he told At The Races.

“He worked on Saturday, he’ll work again tomorrow morning and he’ll canter on Thursday and Friday, it’ll just be his last sort of blow out tomorrow.

“He’s not a fragile sort but he just tends to come to the boil quickly. Viking Flagship used to need a huge amount of work, he was quite stuffy. This horse doesn’t need an awful lot and he soon tells you when he is ready for a race.

“It’s entitled to be a hot race at the weekend as there are very few options for these top two-milers.

“We don’t want him carrying a lot of weight in handicaps so his programme was mapped out at the beginning of the season.

“We knew he would start of at Sandown, move on to Kempton and Newbury and then head for the Queen Mother. A few people are in the same situation as there are few races to run them in.

“I’m very pleased that it is drying up as the last Newbury meeting was run in heavy ground, which we would have been worried about running him on. If it’s good to soft, that will be fine, he’ll have to take his chance, no matter what.”

Voy Por Ustedes is the general 3-1 market leader for the Queen Mother.