Wicketkeeper bypasses Huntingdon

The Wicketkeeper will not bid to follow up his impressive Ascot victory at Huntingdon this week.

Michael Scudamore’s rapidly improving five-year-old turned the Listed Byrne Group Chase into a procession, strolling home by nine lengths to notch up a hat-trick.

Despite holding two entries at Huntingdon this week, however, connections have opted to bide their time with the Grade Two Henry VIII Chase at Sandown on December 8 their elected target.

“He’s fine but he won’t run again this week,” said Peter Scudamore, the trainer’s son and assistant.

“He’ll be entered for a novice chase at Cheltenham’s Paddy Power meeting, there’s some more handicaps round Ascot and then there is the Henry VIII at Sandown. That would be something like a plan for him.

“The Henry VIII would be his main target, depending on the ground – good ground is his forte.

“He is improving at a rate of knots and whatever else he does, he has done very well for a five-year-old and I can’t ask any more of him.

“We are trying to take it in as much as everyone else, what he has achieved, and we are just trying to keep our feet on the ground at this stage.

“Maybe he has been lucky once or twice but he is a very exciting horse to be involved with and we just hope that it continues.

“He turned it into a bit of a procession on Saturday and at the bottom of the hill, he still had a lot to do. He’s very exciting.”