Connections of Coneygree appeared thoroughly pleased with their morning’s work after last year’s Gold Cup winner had a spin round Haydock in preparation for his return to action. A hock injury has kept the nine-year-old from public view for just over a year but there was nothing in Wednesday’s racecourse gallop to dissuade his handlers from sending him back to the Merseyside track a week on Saturday for the Betfair Chase.
“He went very well,” said Sara Bradstock, wife of Mark, Coneygree’s trainer. “He galloped for a couple of miles and was perfect. He went a mile and a half with a nice bumper horse and then Carruthers [the 2011 Hennessy winner] jumped in and Coneygree quickened again.
“We’re delighted with him but I think we’re even more delighted that he’s just come off the box as well as he has,” said Bradstock, newly returned to the yard at Letcombe Bassett, near Lambourn. “He ran off the box, feeling very happy with himself.”
Nico de Boinville, Coneygree’s regular rider, made a significant sacrifice to partner him in the workout, as he became stuck in traffic on the M6 afterwards and missed a winning ride in the opening race here. “I was tearing out what little hair I’ve got left,” he said, having arrived in time to ride the winner of the third.
Of Coneygree De Boinville added: “He came out of that piece of work swimmingly. Very, very good, all positive. Galloped lovely. It’s all systems go.”
Bradstock, who had been anxious for confirmation of Coneygree’s fitness, expressed no lingering concerns on that score and expects the horse will now run in the Betfair. However, she added one caveat: “We are always ground dependent and we’ll have to see what the weather does.
“They had a good bit of rain last night, so it was beautiful, perfect wet ground today. We should know by Monday whether we’ll be running or not. We just want safe jumping ground, preferably soft, because three miles around a track like that would be sharp enough for him.”
Coneygree remains 3-1 second favourite for the Betfair, behind only last year’s winner, Cue Card. If he were to miss the Haydock race for any reason, the following week’s Hennessy would be another obvious target, though the Bradstocks would rather not ask him to carry top weight in a big-field handicap for his return from a year off.
The star attraction on Exeter’s card was supposed to be Aux Ptits Soins, a winner at last year’s Cheltenham Festival, now making his chasing debut. But the grey lacked fluency and turned in a laboured effort to be beaten in a small field at odds of 2-7.
“I’m not disappointed,” said Paul Nicholls, his trainer, who felt the horse had proved to be badly in need of the run, only his second in 18 months. Aux Ptits Soins was sidelined for most of last winter by significant problems with his teeth and sinuses.
“He’ll improve tonnes and tonnes,” Nicholls added. “He wants to get back racing, get lighter, get fitter. He came back to me later than most of mine, didn’t start cantering until September ... If you’re going novice chasing, you’ve got to get some experience. I can do as much as I like at home with him but he needs a few runs. He’s just got tired.”
Even so, the trainer warned: “There’s no telling, after all the problems he’s had, that he’ll be as good as he was. He had three lots of major surgery last year and he had big problems. But he is going to get fitter and fitter and fitter.”
The bookmakers were predictably unimpressed, William Hill doubling the grey’s odds for the Festival’s RSA Chase from 12s to 25-1. Nicholls aims to find another small-field contest as the next stage in Aux Ptits Soins’ learning curve.
More immediately Nicholls hopes to hear good news from the sport’s ruling body about the health of his principal jockey, Sam Twiston-Davies, who tore his spleen in a fall at Chepstow a month ago. A British Horseracing Authority doctor was due to consider the rider’s recovery on Wednesday and will rule on Thursday on whether Twiston-Davies can be allowed back immediately or must wait at least another week.
Nicholls said here that the jockey could have the mount on Bouvreuil in Saturday’s BetVictor Gold Cup at Cheltenham if passed fit, as well as a handful of other rides. “But he’s not going to want to come back and ride six a day; you’ve got to be sensible,” the trainer said.
