Dancer waits for Leopardstown

Exotic Dancer will bypass the Letheby & Christopher Chase at Cheltenham on Saturday and wait for the Hennessy Gold Cup at Leopardstown two weeks later.

The nine-year-old, trained by Jonjo O’Neill, is to return to the track where he was triumphant in the Lexus Chase over Christmas.

“We’ve decided we will not run Exotic Dancer at Cheltenham on Saturday. We will stick to our original plan of going to the Irish Hennessy,” Barry Simpson, racing manager to owner Sir Robert Ogden, announced.

“I’ve said all along providing the ground is decent Star De Mohaison will represent us at Cheltenham, but we did want to cover the situation.

“I’ve chatted with Jonjo this morning. If he’s going to run on Saturday he has to do a piece of work tomorrow. We don’t want to do that if we don’t have to. The plan is to carry on and go for the Irish Hennessy.”

Simpson reported that Star De Mohaison, trained by Paul Nicholls, would definitely run at Cheltenham as long as the ground was not too demanding.

“He is in great shape and provided the ground is not too testing he will definitely run. If it was heavy I might have to reconsider,” he added.