Buveur D’Air will be among a handful of Cheltenham Festival contenders who will work after racing at Kempton on Saturday, providing an added attraction for a card that traditionally offers the last round of Festival trials.
Nicky Henderson, who trains the reigning champion hurdler, had expressed concern about whether the Kempton gallops would go ahead in view of a frosty forecast. But Kempton’s clerk, Barney Clifford, said the gallops would be held after Saturday’s action, rather than before, as planned. “We have to put the frost covers down on Thursday, to give ourselves every chance of racing,” Clifford said. Temperatures of -1C are forecast for Friday night.
The covers must remain in place until 10am on Saturday. They will then take two and a half hours to lift, leaving no time for gallops before the first race. Clifford reckons there will be around half an hour after the last race in which 10 horses can work while sufficient visibility remains. He expects to be oversubscribed and will limit the available slots to Grade One entrants and their working companions.
Earlier, when Henderson was in doubt as to whether he would be able to work Buveur D’Air, it was the one subject that made him appear on edge during an hour-long discussion with the media about his dozens of Festival entrants. “He takes an awful lot of work,” the trainer said of his hurdling star, “and he hasn’t really had a race yet. We’ve got to try and do some more.”
Henderson will return to Kempton on Monday to work a double-figure number of horses on the all-weather, possibly including the King George winner, Might Bite.
It is a measure of Henderson’s strength in depth that he can expect to field the favourites for the Champion Hurdle, Gold Cup and Queen Mother Champion Chase next month. Still, he takes nothing for granted, recalling that Fred Winter had the favourites for the same three races in 1973, when Henderson was Winter’s assistant.
“And guess what happened? The Dikler beat Pendil, Inkslinger beat Crisp and Comedy Of Errors beat Bula. Or was it Lanzarote? Come on, you anoraks, you’re supposed to know these things. Anyway, we went in with three favourites and came out with zilch.”
Henderson confirmed L’Ami Serge would run in the Stayers Hurdle and not the Ryanair, which remains the target for Top Notch. Claimantakinforgan goes for the Supreme, Apple’s Shakira probably joins We Have A Dream in the Triumph, Countister and Dame De Compagnie are being aimed at the mares’ novice hurdle. Call Me Lord will skip the Champion Hurdle. Thomas Campbell is more likely to tackle the Pertemps than the Stayers. Terrefort is likely to miss the Festival unless the ground comes up soft. Gold Present runs at Kempton on Saturday and, if all goes well, will skip Cheltenham and go straight to Aintree.
“If every single one of the 40-odd horses we’re thinking about sending actually make it, it will be a flipping miracle. They won’t. You know something will step on a stone, trip on this, get kidnapped … Anything can happen.”
Doncaster
1.40 Canelo 2.15 Qaviy Cash 2.50 Work Du Breteau (nap) 3.20 Band Of Blood (nb) 3.55 Pacha Du Polder 4.30 Before Midnight 5.00 Larch Hill
Ludlow
1.50 Pearl Of The West 2.25 Town Parks 3.00 Baratineur 3.30 Popelys Gull 4.05 Cereal Killer 4.40 Lake Field 5.10 Dessinateur
Newcastle
2.05 Culpability 2.40 Mystikana 3.10 Hayadh 3.45 Stone Of Destiny 4.20 Casey Jones 4.50 Newmarket Warrior 5.25 Hitman
Kempton
5.45 Lady Nahema 6.15 Lord Oberon 6.45 Multigifted 7.15 Lord George 7.45 Koeman 8.15 Karijini
