Dual Grade One scorer Gala Marceau could make her belated return at Doncaster later this month, as connections have their sights set on the Mares’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.
The five-year-old was a star performer for trainer Willie Mullins and owner Kenny Alexander last season, finishing no worse than third in five starts and tasting big-race success at both the Dublin Racing Festival and at Auteuil in the Prix Alain du Breil.
She was also a fine second to stablemate and regular foe Lossiemouth in the Triumph Hurdle before finishing a place further back in third behind that rival at the Punchestown Festival.
Having finished off her season excelling when upped to two and a half miles in France, connections believe the Mares’ Hurdle over a similar distance is the ideal target for the Cheltenham Festival in March.
And Gala Marceau could use a well-trodden path to Prestbury Park by running in Doncaster’s Yorkshire Rose Mares’ Hurdle on January 27, a race Mullins has won with both Annie Power (2014) and Vroum Vroum Mag (2017) previously.
“We will possibly see her out towards the end of the month and there is a nice race at Doncaster that is being discussed,” said Peter Molony, racing manager to owner Alexander. “It’s a nice mares’ race, a Grade Two I think it is.
“The main aim would be the Mares’ Hurdle at Cheltenham – that’s what we are thinking.
“The extra half a mile she will get at Cheltenham seemed to really play to her strengths at Auteuil and she was very impressive that day. We were all blown away to be honest.”
Alexander’s colours have of course been carried to Mares’ Hurdle success twice in the past by the great four-time Festival winner Honeysuckle.
Gala Marceau may struggle to match Honeysuckle’s exceptional career CV, but Molony feels she has more than done enough to advertise her quality during her first season with Mullins and has shown signs over the summer there could be plenty more to come.
He continued: “I’m not sure she will ever fill those boots, but she has done us proud so far and won us two Grade Ones.
“She’s not the biggest in the world, but she is as tough as nails and she has definitely grown with us over the summer and strengthened a bit by the time she went back to Willie’s. So we are very hopeful she can progress again.”
Minister of Sport Olivia Grange has pushed back at critics, as she insists that the ministry did its best to give support to the Jamaica Tallawahs.
Her response in a statement on Thursday, follows widespread condemnation about the Government's lack of support for the Tallawahs, which inevitably resulted in owner Kris Persaud moving the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) Twenty20 franchise from Jamaica to Antigua and Barbuda.
Grange pointed out that the ministry provided special support to the Tallawahs at the level that funds would permit, as they forwarded cash, and paid for coordinated services across the Government of Jamaica to facilitate the franchise. She added that the ministry’s Sports Division and the Sports Development Foundation provided direct cash payments of J$13 million to Jamaica Tallawahs, including the purchase of tickets for matches, between 2015 and 2019.
The minister said the government incurred significant direct costs as it worked to facilitate the Tallawahs, as she revealed that the Sports Development Foundation undertook the cost for the importation of goods and equipment needed for use during cricket matches.
Additionally, Grange argued that her ministry also undertook the cost for various licenses and fees including for television broadcasts, as well as, negotiated with the Jamaica Urban Transit Company to provide transport service to the Tallawahs, and with the Jamaica Tourist Board to market the team.
Grange stated that she also successfully participated in discussions with private sector companies about sponsorship for the team.
“We did our best to give support to the Tallawahs. The Tallawahs bear our country’s name, but are not a national team, and are therefore not covered in the yearly allocations to the Jamaica Cricket Association. However, we have sought to provide special support to the Tallawahs at the level that our funds will permit," the minister said in her statement.
Grange explained that it was difficult for the Government to go beyond its reach, citing that the Sports Development Foundation provided J$263 million in grants to all national sports federations in 2023.
“It is estimated that the Tallawahs require US$1 million each year—or more than J$150 million; but in order to give them more, we would have to cut funding to the more than 40 National Sports Federations, such as football, netball, track and field, who depend on government to run their programmes and have been requesting additional sums — which we are challenged to provide," she noted.
On another note, Grange attended the handing over ceremony of 90 cricket kits from the Government of India to the Jamaica Cricket Association.
The handing over ceremony took place at the High Commission of India and represented the remainder of the 100 cricket kits promised to Jamaica by the Indian President, His Excellency Ram Nath Kovind, during his visit to the island in 2022. The President had presented 10 kits during that initial visit.
Grange expressed gratitude to the High Commissioner, His Excellency Masakui Rungsung, and the Indian government for the gear “which will benefit young cricketers across the country.”
“This is one of the initiatives on which the High Commissioner and I have been working together as representatives of our respective governments in the interest of cricket. We are also discussing a major project, about which I believe we will soon be in a position to update our respective stakeholders about," Grange said.
Finally, she challenged the notion that the government was anti-cricket, pointing out that the Jamaica Cricket Association receives more funding each year from the Sports Development Foundation than all other national federations except football and track and field.
This defence also came, as the government was also criticisied for missing out on a bid to host games during the ICC Twenty20 World Cup to be hosted in the Caribbean and United States later this year. Jamaica and West Indies captain Rovman Powell and all-rounder Andre Russell rencently expressed concern about the development and, by extension, the lack of international cricket being played locally.
Several horses at champion trainer Paul Nicholls’ Ditcheat base in Somerset had to be moved from their stables on Thursday evening as heavy rain in the area flooded part of their yard.
Nicholls described the rain as a “once in a 15-year event”, but was able to report on Friday morning that as quick as the flood appeared it had soon receded.
Racing is scheduled for Wincanton on Saturday, Nicholls’ local track, but officials are confident racing will take place and the handler echoes their optimism given how quickly the water disappeared.
“It’s a once in a 15-year event really when you get so much rain in the area through Somerset and Wiltshire and it all ends up coming down the rivers,” Nicholls told Nick Luck’s Daily Podcast.
“We are right by the River Aller and as everything backs up and the river bursts its banks everywhere, all the drainage in the village and in our yard just backs up and our bottom yard floods.
“We have six or eight horses that when it gets like we have to move out and at 10.30pm last night we were having to move them out.
“Astonishingly once the water levels drop it’s like someone pulls a plug, it just disappears and it’s all gone today.
“The problem is higher up, they get so much rain it feeds into the river and nothing can cope. It’s just sheer volume of water.
“I must say I’ve never seen rain like it, or water on the roads, last night. I took my dad to the pub last and I basically had to rescue him, it took an hour to get home and it’s basically half a mile down the road. I’ve never seen anything like it, but it’s all good this morning.
“It doesn’t surprise me Wincanton might race as there was so much water it just ran straight off, it didn’t get chance to sink in.”
Sandy Thomson has a bet365 Morebattle Hurdle double top of his wish list for Benson having seen the nine-year-old return to the winner’s enclosure at Musselburgh on New Year’s Day.
Benson had kicked off 2023 with an 11-length victory over Stuart Crawford’s Holmes St Georges at the Edinburgh track and returned to the same race 12 months later for a repeat in the Hogmaneigh Handicap Hurdle, this time beating the Irish raider by just one length off an 8lb higher mark.
From Musselburgh, Thomson’s stable star went straight to Kelso for the Morebattle in 2023, where he registered a famous local victory for Borders-based Thomson when downing Lorna Fowler’s Colonel Mustard.
Benson could follow the same route once again, although his handler is considering a return to Musselburgh for their Scottish Cheltenham Trials weekend, such is his stellar record at the track.
“It was a great performance and I was very happy with him before the race, he just seemed to have come to himself,” said Thomson.
“That’s what Benson does. He has been called a lot of names in the past but he stuck his neck out and was almost going away again at the line.
“We’ll obviously go for the Morebattle, but whether he goes to Cheltenham Trials Day at Musselburgh in a month or so, I don’t know. Obviously they are spaced quite nicely apart.
“The Morebattle is top of the list, but there is some quite nice prize-money at Musselburgh. If he went and won at Musselburgh he would go up (in the ratings) again, but we will see what the handicapper does and take it from there.”
Sandown’s meeting on Saturday, set to feature the £100,000 Unibet Veterans’ Handicap Chase, has been abandoned due to a waterlogged track.
Clerk of the course Andrew Cooper and his team called an 8am precautionary inspection on Friday as though the track was raceable at the time, heavy rain was forecast for Thursday evening.
The predicted worst case scenario was up to 20mm of rain, but even more fell at the Esher venue with 34mm recorded and it has left the course saturated with no hope of improvement in time for racing.
“We’ve had 34 millimetres of rain, which started at about 2pm yesterday afternoon and finally eased off at about 4am this morning,” said Cooper.
“I would say there are multiple areas on both courses (chase and hurdle tracks) of waterlogged, false ground and areas of standing water and there are no options in terms of realignment.
“I think there is an element of judgement that it isn’t going to be materially better in 24 hours and we don’t think it will be sufficiently better in 24 hours.
“It’s basically saturated ground that is going to sit like that for a number of days now.
“It was just the wrong amount of rain at the wrong time for us, on top of what has already been a fairly wet spell, certainly since Christmas anyway.”
USL Championship team Hartford Athletic have signed Reggae Boyz forward Romario Williams ahead of the 2024 season, pending league and federation approval.
“I am very excited about the opportunity to play for Hartford and compete in front of one of the best fan bases in the league,” Williams said. “Between the new players joining the roster and the style of play Coach Burke employs, there is so much to be excited about. I am ready to get to work!”
Williams comes to Hartford with nine years of experience as a professional across MLS, USL Championship, and abroad. A prolific goal scorer, the 29-year-old posted a career year with Colorado Springs in 2023. Williams tied his career high in goals (15) and assists (three) in a season, matching his stellar season with the Charleston Battery in 2017. The 15 tallies led Colorado Springs and were seventh most in the Championship.
“We are very happy to add a goal scorer like Romario to our attacking core,” said Head Coach and General Manager Brendan Burke. “He’s an experienced player who knows what it takes to win at the highest level, and he will be a leader for this team both on the field and in the locker room.”
After being taken by the Montreal Impact (now CF Montréal) third overall in the 2015 MLS SuperDraft, Williams made appearances with Atlanta United and the Columbus Crew. His best MLS season came in 2018 with Atlanta, when he appeared in 17 matches and scored a goal to help the club towards their first MLS Cup victory.
Williams played abroad from 2020 to 2021, scoring three goals with Al Ittihad of the Egyptian Premier League across two full seasons, then adding five more goals with Qadsia SC of the Kuwait Premier League. He returned to the USL Championship in 2022 with New Mexico United.
A native of Portmore, Jamaica, Williams has earned 17 international caps for his home country. He most recently scored a goal for the Reggae Boyz in a 2-1 win over Grenada in the CONCACAF Gold Cup Nations League last October, the third of his international career.
It is every young footballer's dream to play on the global stage, but first they would require the necessary platform to parade their skills with hopes of being recognized by astute overseas-based coaches.
Such is the case for some of the Caribbean's top young players, who are provided an opportunity to take their talents beyond the shores and, by extension, bring their dreams of making it big on the global stage within reach, courtesy of the Caribbean Premier Showcase.
The Caribbean Premier Showcase, conceptualized by Jamaican-born Oniqueky Samuels in 2014, was meant to be a mere recruitment drive for universities and colleges in the United States, but has since blossomed into a developmental workshop.
The event is designed to test the mettle and skills of players from across the region under the watchful eyes of over 30 coaches from universities, colleges, clubs and academies across the world.
Having made stops in Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada over the years, Samuels, the Men’s Head coach and International Advisor at the University of Maine, Fort Kent, has opted to bring the showcase back to Jamaica, with action scheduled for Friday and Saturday starting at 9:00am.
St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) Sports Complex in Santa Cruz will be the first stop, before Samuels and team cap things off at the UWI-JFF Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence in Kingston.
The showcase involves a number of games in the morning from which coaches will select the various players they want to see advance. In the afternoon, an All-scholastic team, selected by ISSA, will square off against an All-star team selected by the coaches. Following those engagements, the All-manning and All-daCosta Cup teams will lock horns against the All-star teams selected by the coaches.
After leaving Jamaica the Showcase will head to Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Samuels pointed out that his inspiration to launch such an initiative stemmed from his own journey, as he was awarded a scholarship to the University of Maine, Fort Kent in 2007, and has made full use of the opportunity.
The soft-spoken Samuels completed two degrees at Maine, Fort Kent, and later transitioned to Union College where he started his coaching career. After spending two seasons at Union as a graduate assistant, he was hired by Maine, Fort Kent as an academic advisor and assistant coach, before taking the reins as of his current position in 2018.
“I'm excited about how everything is manifesting. It started as just an itch to give back to young Jamaicans as soon as I got an opportunity coaching. So, I wanted to recruit you know personnel from similar background as mine and it has transitioned into this that you're seeing now,” Samuels, who is also the founder of the Samuels Soccer Foundation, shared.
“It is so satisfying, a lot of persons are hopping on board and making this an official event. That's the main objective, to make this an official annual event that can give young Caribbean players an opportunity to excel, whether you know excel in football or excel in academics because at the end of the day it started by just you know offering scholarships to universities and colleges,” he added.
According to Samuels, another key component to the Showcase is the fact that it also prepares the successful recruits mentally for their transition into a new environment.
“It helps with the want-to-do-well mindset because you want to make better for your family. So, at the end of the day, you have me that have gone through with you have Rajay [Maragh] that has gone through it, many of the personnel who are assisting and volunteering for this showcase, have gone through it. We also offer that connection and relationship with the coaches as well, so if there are issues or any kind of conversation that needs to be had, you know we're going to have those conversations. So, we kind of maintain somewhat of a relationship as a kid gets an opportunity. They're not just thrown out into wherever they land and just expected to do well,” he explained.
That said, Rajay Maragh, the Showcase’s chief operating officer, argued that it would be remiss if they didn’t stress the need to balance academics and the athletics to allow for greater success. This, he said is often an issue as some student-athletes forget that they are students first.
“That is one of the challenges we had last year too. So, we had a player who did well at the showcase, the coach is interested. We go into the system, and we pull up his profile, but the grades are not matching. These days, Colleges are not necessarily giving full scholarship like that. They'll give you an academic scholarship, and an athletic scholarship and together that would make it a full scholarship. So, you may have a coach that offers a player 60% in sports scholarship, which means the other 40 needs to come from your academic progress,” Maragh revealed.
On that note, President and founder of Value FC Emelio Williams gave insight into what the coaches will be looking for.
"Whether you play top tier college football or professional football, one of the first things is just character. You know your academics well. I'm a supporter of schools because we run two professional teams in Europe and you're a brand. The club is a brand, the team is a brand, each player is a brand. You might score 30 goals for the season, but if your actions bring the club in disrepute, it's all for nought. So, character and all the things that come with just the discipline, the commitment, the drive, being a good teammate, hard work. Those things are massively important to any college coach and to any professional organization. I would say character and then obviously your football and talents or your academic, your athletic talents are massively important," he said.
Stumptown will be trained for a return to the Cheltenham Festival in March after bouncing back to winning ways at the track on New Year’s Day.
The seven-year-old was narrowly beaten by Angels Dawn at the showpiece meeting last season but has been largely disappointing since, including when pulled up as a leading fancy for the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury in early December.
However, with headgear fitted for the first time, Stumptown showed his true colours back in the Cotswolds, providing his trainer Gavin Cromwell with a seventh winner from 17 runners at the home of National Hunt racing this season.
“I was delighted with him,” said Cromwell. “Going back to a small field, a bit of ease in the ground compared to Newbury, I suppose lowering our sights a bit and the blinkers applied, it was nice to get his head in front again.
“He’d lost his way since his good run there at the Festival. He ran in the Irish Grand National after having a hard race at Cheltenham and I’d say it took its toll and it just took him a while to get back this year.
“He ran well enough in the Kerry National, but made a couple of mistakes, which you just can’t get away with in those competitive handicaps.”
While a Festival win is top of Stumptown’s agenda, a tilt at the Grand National is also on the radar.
Cromwell added: “He’ll probably go to the Festival as I’m sure the owners would love to go back. I suppose the obvious races are the Kim Muir again or the Ultima and we’ll just wait and see which we go.
“The Grand National is a possibility and the Irish National is a possibility as well.”
Reggae Boy Deshane Beckford is hoping to hit the ground running on his return to Hartford Athletic when the United Soccer League (USL) championship season gets underway in March.
The midfielder, who enjoyed a productive loan spell at Hartford Athletic two years ago, rejoins the team at a time when they require some impetus, as they endured a dismal campaign last season, and finished at the foot of the Eastern Conference with a mere four wins in 34 outings.
Beckford in confirming his move from Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC, where he scored two goals and had four assists in 32 appearances last season, expressed delight at being reunited with coach Brendan Burke.
“I am happy to reunite with coach [Brendan] Burke and be part of the project in Hartford,” Beckford said.
“This is one of the most passionate fan bases in the entire league and I’m glad to have them cheering me on and supporting me this season. I am also looking forward to integrating myself into Hartford’s large Jamaican community, something that I’m sure will make me feel right at home in my new city,” he added.
The 25-year-old, whose lone international cap came two years ago, joins compatriot Andre Lewis and Trinidad and Tobago’s Tristan Hodge at Hartford Athletic.
Meanwhile, Burke, a big admirer of Beckford has high expectations from a player he believes will add great attacking value to the squad. Beckford has made 97 Championship appearances, with 11 goals and 12 assists to his record.
“We are very excited to bring Deshane to Hartford. He is an excellent winger with great pace on the ball and is especially dangerous on the counterattack,” Burke, who is also the club general manager, shared. “He does a great job to put pressure on the opposition with his effort on defense as well. Our fans are really going to enjoy cheering on Deshane this season,” he noted.
Connections of Caldwell Potter have plenty to get excited about following his thoroughly impressive Leopardstown success over the Christmas period.
Gordon Elliott’s charge was sent off at odds of 6-1 for a competitive running of the Grade One Paddy Power Future Champions Novice Hurdle, but proved a decisive winner when pulling clear on the run to two out and galloping on to a cosy six-and-a-half-length success in the hands of Jack Kennedy.
It was a performance that justified his big-race jockey’s confidence and Joey Logan, racing manager to Andy and Gemma Brown’s Caldwell Construction Ltd string, believes connections are only getting a glimpse of what the talented six-year-old could be capable of.
He said: “He was very impressive and to be honest Jack was very confident going out, he had said it was one of the horses he was most looking forward to riding all week at Leopardstown.
“His form is good and he’s improving all the time and he is a lot stronger than he was last year. Hopefully that will continue going forward and he has a lovely way about him throughout his race.”
Having joined his ill-fated brother, Mighty Potter, on the race’s roll of honour, Caldwell Potter could have paved the way for a return to the Irish capital for the Dublin Racing Festival next month where the Tattersalls Ireland Novice Hurdle could be the ideal place to complete his Cheltenham Festival preparations.
Logan added: “More than likely we will (go back to Leopardstown), but I have to speak to Andy, Gemma and Gordon. You couldn’t seen much reason why not to and it would be the logical step towards Cheltenham.
“He could be a Supreme horse or a Ballymore horse and with the way he did it, he was only going through the motions. I don’t think either trip will be a bother.”
If Caldwell Potter proved the perfect way to end 2023 for the Caldwell Construction team, they then got the new year off to a flying start at Fairyhouse on New Year’s Day as Mollys Mango spearheaded a brilliant double on the card.
The six-year-old, who was placed at Listed level in a bumper, ran out an imperious 17-length scorer to book a possible return to Fairyhouse for Grade Three duties later this month in the Solerina Mares Novice Hurdle.
“Mollys Mango is a very, very nice mare and we’ve always loved her,” said Logan.
“She wasn’t right the last time, but she won her bumper by nearly six lengths before getting black type and Jack said she gave him some feel the other day.
“She didn’t beat a whole lot and Jack said she would do more on the gallops at home than she did in the race.
“We’ll speak again but the Solerina would be probably what we would be thinking there.”
Staffordshire Knot then got off the mark at the second attempt in the concluding bumper and with the gelding already six, attentions could turn to jumping sooner rather than later.
Logan said: “His work was very good and the family are related to Many Clouds, so there is plenty of stamina in the pedigree. The Tullow Tank who won a couple of Grade Ones is in there as well.
“It was a lovely performance and we could go up to two and a half miles and start jumping hurdles with him, or he could stay in bumpers. I would be more inclined to go jumping with him and he looks a really nice prospect.”
Sandown’s feature meeting on Saturday must survive an 8am precautionary inspection on Friday.
With the going at the Esher venue raceable but already very testing, a new band of rain is due to arrive on Thursday evening which has seen the Met Office to issue a yellow weather warning.
Clerk of the course Andrew Cooper, speaking at 2.30pm on Thursday, said: “I think it’s a sensible approach to call the inspection given the uncertainty of the volume of rain that we may see through the rest of the day here.
“It looks like it’s about to start here looking at all the radars, so it is on its way and there is talk of 20 millimetres plus potentially.
“You’d race here today, you would have done every day this week, but there are parts on both courses that are approaching the limits of their capacity to take any more rain which can’t be avoided – we have to be able to race through them, we can’t doll them off and these areas are primarily in the home straight.
“The rain should have finished in the early hours of Friday so we can have a look first thing and see where we have got to – if necessary we can have a further look later in the day or whatever, all possible outcomes you wouldn’t rule out.
“Once that has gone through it does look a dry picture up to and including Saturday and beyond, it just depends on the scale of rain we see.”
Wincanton’s Saturday fixture is also in doubt with their clerk of the course Daniel Cooper calling an inspection called for 8am on Saturday, also due to a yellow warning for rain.
Fugitif has two options before a likely crack at the Ryanair Trophy in March.
Trainer Richard Hobson is weighing up whether to send him to Cheltenham on January 27 for Trials Day, or run a week earlier in Lingfield’s Fleur de Lys Chase.
Fourth in the Paddy Power Gold Cup in November, he finally broke Hobson’s duck at the track in the December Gold Cup.
It was perhaps fitting Fugitif was the one to give Hobson his first winner at Cheltenham given he has run so many good races there, including when second to Seddon in the Plate at last year’s Festival.
“He did his first couple of swinging canters the other day since winning at Cheltenham. He had a week off after that win but he is extremely well,” said Hobson.
“He will aim for either the extended two-and-a-half-mile Premier Handicap at Cheltenham on Trials Day (Paddy Power Cheltenham Countdown Podcast Handicap Chase) or the Fleur de Lys Chase at Lingfield.
“I had no intention of running him at the Christmas meeting at Cheltenham as we always felt he needed time between his races, but he came out of the Paddy Power Gold Cup so well and he was showing all the right signs that we decided to give the December Gold Cup a go.
“When I got my trainer’s licence, there were three things I said to my wife that I wanted to do. I wanted to train a big winner at Auteuil’s festival, train a big winner at Aintree, which we did with Dame Rose, and to train a winner at Cheltenham and that one took a bit longer than we liked, what with all the seconds we had before Fugitif won.
“We had so many hard luck stories at Cheltenham, it was nice to finally see one get their head in front.
“He is in the Ryanair and that is likely to be his main target for the season. He will be put in the Plate as well, but carrying big weights in those handicaps is a hard thing to do. If he was to place in the Ryanair, it would be a great result.”
Ben Pauling retains plenty of faith in Tellherthename as he attempts to get to the bottom of what caused his disappointing showing in Aintree’s Formby Novices’ Hurdle.
The five-year-old fetched £200,000 at the sales having got the better of recent Exeter bumper scorer and Envoi Allen’s brother Joyau Allen in the pointing field and backed up that promise in his opening outings under rules, pushing eventual Formby winner Jango Baie all the way at Ascot before bolting up at Huntingdon.
Tellherthename was sent off at odds of 5-1 when making the move to Grade One company on Boxing Day and was up with the pace before stopping quickly approaching three out, eventually being pulled up by jockey Kielan Woods.
Pauling has given the gelding a full MOT following that effort and if nothing comes to light from the extensive bout of testing, the Naunton Downs handler will be content to point towards the testing conditions at Aintree as a plausible reason for Tellherthename’s Formby no-show.
He said: “We’ve explored and turned most stones we can now because we were a bit perplexed at the time as we think he is a bit special. He was just beaten a long way out really for it to be right.
“At the moment we are still investigating but I would pretty much hang my hat on the fact he doesn’t handle that very testing ground.
“Everything so far, all his bloods and stuff, has been good, but we’ve got a few more little bits and bobs to check out.
“He seems very well in himself and if nothing comes to light, I will put it down to the fact he just can’t go on that very soft ground.”
Pauling went on: “I trotted off down the track to try to meet him to make sure he was OK and it was just very hard work.
“It was about as bad a ground I think I’ve seen in a long time and interestingly I shared a lift home with Felix De Giles who rode the French horse, July Flower, in the race and he said it was worse ground than Auteuil by a margin. His horse didn’t even handle the ground and travel to the second hurdle and she is proven on that very soft ground at Auteuil.”
Providing Tellherthename gets the all clear to continue his campaign, Pauling is keen to attempt to restore the talented novice’s confidence at the earliest opportunity.
He will be searching for an opening in calmer waters over the coming weeks where it is hoped the Megson Family-owned gelding can bounce back to his best and reignite spring festival dreams for all connected.
“If nothing comes to light, we will look to get him out in the next 10 days to two weeks in an ordinary novice somewhere, just to get his season back on track,” continued Pauling.
“We can then make plans from there whether we go straight to the Festival or look elsewhere, but as long as the horse is OK.
“From what he did at Huntingdon and before that at Ascot, the form is in the book. He just got touched off by Jango Baie at Ascot and I’m not overly worried about it all – if there is something to find we will find it, if not we will draw a line and go again.
“I think he is a very good horse and as good as we have had for a long time.”
Challow Hurdle runner-up Lookaway has a return to Newbury for the Betfair Hurdle or the M1 Agency Sidney Banks Memorial Novices’ Hurdle at Huntingdon as possible options en route to the Cheltenham Festival.
Neil King’s seven-year-old has become a real unsung hero of the novice hurdling division this term and although his winning streak has come to an end of late, Lookaway has still turned in high-calibre performances.
Stepping up in trip for a first taste of Grade One action on the back of his Greatwood Hurdle second, the Grade Two scorer pushed Paul Nicholls’ Captain Teague all the way in a thrilling event to end 2023.
King was thrilled with the performance and having only been put up 1lb by the assessor, he admits the Betfair Hurdle will be tempting, despite the Listed Sidney Banks – over a similar trip to the Challow – seeming a more obvious route to Prestbury Park.
“I thought it was a massive run from him, just with the wrong result,” said King.
“I was thrilled with him and it was just the wrong result. He’s come back home in really good form, I’ve ridden him out this morning and he’s in lovely form.
“He’s only gone up 1lb which has to be a bonus, so we could think about an entry in the Betfair, but maybe the Sidney Banks would be a more obvious target on the way to Cheltenham.”
Once at the Cheltenham Festival, King will need to decide whether to run in the opening Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle over a course and distance Lookaway has already tasted success this term, or tackle the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle over an intermediate trip.
“I’m sure for the Festival the Ballymore is probably going to be better than the Supreme,” said King.
“But as everyone is saying, if the ground comes up the state it is now, then maybe the Supreme is not such a daft idea.
“If it was typical Festival ground, then two-miles-five is going to be better for us.”
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