Don Poli, who had been quoted as favourite or joint-favourite for two races at the Cheltenham Festival next week, will run in the RSA Chase on Wednesday’s card in preference to the four-mile Toby Balding National Hunt Chase the previous afternoon, Eddie O’Leary, the racing manager to owner Michael O’Leary’s Gigginstown Stud operation, said on Friday.
The decision on Don Poli helped to clarify the targets for all of the novice chasers due to run in the Gigginstown Stud colours at next week’s meeting, with O’Leary expected to be double-handed in the RSA Chase and National Hunt Chase.
“After consultation with Willie [Mullins] and Noel Meade, the plan is for Don Poli and [Meade’s] Very Wood [the winner of last season’s Albert Bartlett Novice Hurdle] to run in the RSA Chase.
“Wounded Warrior [also trained by Meade] and [Sandra Hughes’s] Thunder And Roses will be our two runners in the four-miler, Valseur Lido [from the Mullins stable] will go for the [Grade One] JLT [Novice Chase on Thursday] and [Gordon Elliott’s] Clarcam goes for the Arkle.
“Those are the plans as we stand, taking into account the ground and everything else, but it’s not absolutely definite. If the ground were to change, things could change, but those are the running plans as we speak.”
O’Leary also confirmed plans for Gigginstown’s novice hurdlers, with Outlander, another Mullins-trained contender and a Grade Two winner at Leopardstown in January, apparently the operation’s best chance of a winner in Wednesday’s Neptune Novice Hurdle.
“Outlander will run in the Neptune, probably joined by [stablemate] McKinley,” O’Leary said. “Tell Us More [Mullins] will go for the Supreme [the opening race of the meeting on Tuesday], No More Heroes [Elliott] runs in the Albert Bartlett and we could also run Milsean [Mullins] in the same race.”
With rising temperatures forecast for the weekend and the ground at Cheltenham starting to dry out, the track said on Friday that it had started a programme of “selective watering” ahead of next week’s Festival.
The current going at the track is described as good to soft, good in places, and the watering will attempt to maintain those conditions.
“We’ll be doing some selective watering, amounting to 3mm to 4mm, in the next couple of days to maintain that going description,” Simon Claisse, Cheltenham’s clerk of the course, said.
“The forecasters suggest we’ll get no more than 2mm of rain between now and racing on Tuesday, so I have had to make a judgement call on how much watering we need to do. Temperatures look set to rise into the early teens next week, which will hopefully be great for racegoers and I’m sure the horses will enjoy a bit of sun on their backs as well.”
Toast Of New York, the runner-up in last season’s Breeders’ Cup Classic and the long-term favourite for the Dubai World Cup later this month, will miss the world’s richest race after suffering a setback in training.
Jamie Osborne’s colt was beaten a nose at Santa Anita in November in the colours of Michael Buckley, and was then sold to join the Al Shaqab Racing operation of Sheikh Joaan al-Thani of Qatar. He also landed a big prize when running away with the UAE Derby on World Cup night at Meydan last year.
“He’s had a setback and sadly he’s going to miss the World Cup,” Osborne said. “I have to speak to the Al Shaqab team and I’m sure we’ll be formulating another plan. It’s very disappointing for Sheikh Joaan and his team, and obviously for everybody here. He’ll be back.”
