Paul Nicholls encountered a rare bump in the road in what has been a winter of almost unbroken success when he had to announce on Monday that Al Ferof will be on the sidelines until April at the earliest. The grey had been a leading contender for the Grade One Ascot Chase on Saturday and was thought to have the Ryanair Chase at the Cheltenham Festival as his end-of-term target.
“Al Ferof has a minor problem which rules him out of his intended target in the Ascot Chase on Saturday, and also the Cheltenham Festival,” Nicholls said through his Betfair blog. “He has a partially entrapped epiglottis which requires minor corrective surgery. So Ascot and Cheltenham are ruled out, as he will be recovering, but the aim is to get him ready for Aintree and Punchestown.”
Al Ferof, last seen when third in the King George on Boxing Day, won the Supreme Novice Hurdle at the 2011 Festival and has taken part in Cheltenham’s biggest week for the past four years.
The Ascot Chase was reopened due to a shortage of entries but Nicholls revealed Ptit Zig is his substitute. The six-year-old is only a novice this season, but is unbeaten in four attempts over fences.
“I feel Ptit Zig is ready to step out of novice company,” the trainer added. “He is in great form and I am looking forward to running him at Ascot. We will make a final decision just before the declaration stage on Thursday.
“He schooled well with Sam [Twiston-Davies] this morning and his Cheltenham target next month is the JLT Novice Chase.” Ptit Zig is 4-1 second-favourite for that race, behind only Vautour.
The idea of taking inexperienced horses out of novice company at the Festival does not appeal to many trainers, though it looks increasingly as though Mark and Sara Bradstock will tilt at the Gold Cup with Coneygree, such an impressive winner against seasoned rivals at Newbury on Saturday. Sara Bradstock has told the Racing Post that a late decision will be taken but that the Gold Cup “might even be the easier race” when compared to the novice equivalent, the RSA.
There are no such thoughts in the head of David Pipe, whose novice Kings Palace was also a winner on the Newbury card. “He will be scratched from the Gold Cup, leaving the RSA Chase as his Festival objective,” Pipe said through his website.
“It wasn’t entirely straightforward, as he made a couple of hair-raising errors at the ditch in the straight, although his jumping at the plain fences was spectacular. He is a bit stiff after his race, but is still firmly on target for Cheltenham.”
Harry Topper was also reported to be feeling the effects of his Newbury run, when he trailed Coneygree by 22 lengths in fifth place. His trainer, Kim Bailey, reported that the horse was “sore” and unlikely to be seen again this season.
Taquin Du Seuil, fourth in the same race, is now likely to be aimed at the Festival’s Ryanair Chase rather than the Gold Cup, according to quotes attributed to his trainer, Jonjo O’Neill, in the Gloucestershire Echo. “We didn’t get the trip,” said O’Neill, who added that a final decision would have to be made by the horse’s owner. The trainer is expected to field another possible Gold Cup runner, Holywell, in a trial race at Kelso on Thursday.
Sign Of A Victory, a late withdrawal from the Betfair Hurdle at Newbury, is now likely to run in the Kingwell Hurdle at Wincanton on Saturday, his owner said.
