Elements to decide Celestial's race plan

Adrian Maguire's star mare Celestial Wave is on target to run at Gowran Park next week but the trainer insists he will not be rushed into a decision on whether or not she travels to the Cheltenham festival in March.

Celestial Wave is as low as 10 to 1 with some bookmakers for the Ladbrokes World Hurdle at the festival on the back of two very impressive Grade Two victories at Navan and Leopardstown.

Next Thursday's Galmoy Hurdle will be the next step for the dramatically improved mare but in the longer term, Maguire insists that the elements will decide what he does.

"I honestly can't say anything about Cheltenham yet because it will be the ground on the day that tells us if we can run or not," the former top jockey said yesterday.

"The ground will make our minds up for us. If it's good, then there's no chance. We will need soft ground to run and I know myself that that is unlikely.

"If the ground isn't right, I can't let her run because I know I would be messing her about," Maguire added.

If Celestial Wave doesn't make the racing at Cheltenham, she could still wait for the Punchestown festival in April but Maguire's immediate target is at Gowran next week.

"Everything is good with her and she is in fine form," he said. "From March on, her options are quite limited but it's not unknown for soft ground to come up at Punchestown. There's a three-mile Grade One there that would be ideal."

Newmill's trainer John Murphy will leave it until tomorrow before deciding if his champion chaser runs in Saturday's Bank Of Ireland Hurdle at Naas or Sunday's Normans Grove Chase at Fairyhouse.

"We won't know until declaration time where the better ground is. That will determine where we go. Both races are difficult so we don't have an 'easy option' to go for," the Cork trainer said yesterday.

"There's no point running on bottomless ground because he doesn't act on it. I've said before I wouldn't worry if he went straight to Cheltenham but it would be nice to get a run into him," Murphy added.

The ground at Fairyhouse is currently heavy while it is soft to heavy at Naas.

Finger Onthe Pulse was a big disappointment in last weekend's Lanzarote Hurdle at Kempton and Tom Taaffe is in no rush to try the horse again.

The Taaffe runner managed only 11th in the Lanzarote and the trainer said yesterday: "I'm not quite sure whether the adrenalin buzz was just too much for him but he's fine now. The whole travelling thing may have worn him out but he seems fine.

"Maybe that's just how good he is but he also had a lot of weight. I've nothing planned for him. I'll sit on the fence and see how he is."