Play considered for Timber return

State Of Play could be set for a switch back to hurdles after his fifth-place finish in the Lexus Chase.

The eight-year-old finished more than 17 lengths behind Denman in the Leopardstown Grade One following a fair second in the Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby.

Those two reverses have prompted trainer Evan Williams to lower his sights with the 2006 Hennessy winner.

“We know now he’s not up to Grade One standard,” he said.

“I always said I thought the Charlie Hall would be his Gold Cup this year and he just got beat under a penalty by Ollie Magern.

“We don’t really have a plan for him now but we could look at the good handicaps for him or even some of the staying hurdles.

“He’s rated 110 over hurdles and he might be the type for something like the Pertemps or Coral Cup if we could get that mark up.

“He is a Hennessy winner and like a lot of the others he is a very, very good handicapper or Grade Two horse – but not quite good enough at the highest level.

“He was late back from Ireland due to the bad weather but we’ll give him a little break now then look at the handicap and hurdles options.”