Noble Prince ready to return at Naas

Paul Nolan would prefer decent ground at Naas this weekend to allow Noble Prince to return to the National Hunt sphere in the Ben Dunne Gyms Supporting Kildare GAA Poplar Square Chase.

The seven-year-old ran out an impressive winner of the Jewson Novices’ Chase at the Cheltenham Festival in the spring and would have gone close to following up at Fairyhouse but for falling at the second last fence.

He ran no sort of race on the Flat at the Curragh recently but Nolan feels his smart gelding will have improved plenty fitness-wise for that run.

“All going well this week I’d say it’s more than likely he’ll be going to Naas. Hopefully the ground isn’t go to be too heavy there,” said Nolan.

“He just needed the run badly when he ran at the Curragh. I think he’ll strip a lot fitter this time but having said that, I think he’ll come on for it again.

“We’ve been very happy with him at home and he’s schooled nicely, so we’ll see how he gets on.

“With the rain we’ve had in Ireland over the last few days you’re not going to get too much nice ground for a while.

“If the ground does go testing we’ll probably stick to the minimum trip during the winter and we can always step back up in the spring.

“We’ve given him an entry at Cheltenham’s November meeting, so we’ll just see.”