NEWS ROUND-UP: BOOKMAKERS RATE Big Zeb the biggest threat to Master Minded completing a Queen Mother Champion Chase hat-trick in March, and Colm Murphy's star is set to get his campaign towards Cheltenham under way at Navan on Sunday.
Big Zeb is one of nine entries at the five-day stage for the Grade Two Ladbrokes Fortria Chase, and although ground conditions don’t look likely to suit the double-Grade One winner, Murphy is keen to get a run into him.
“Conditions won’t be ideal. He is a stone better on better ground but, weather permitting, the plan is to run,” the Co Wexford-based trainer said yesterday. “We have to start him somewhere and we just hope he can get through it.
“He has done very well through the winter and looks to have got even stronger.”
Big Zeb fell in last season’s Champion Chase at Cheltenham, but gave Master Minded a rare fright at Punchestown in April when, despite a bad mistake at the last fence, he went down by only a head to the dual two-mile champion.
He won’t be overly busy before this season’s festival, with Murphy reporting: “We will decide about Sandown (Tingle Creek Chase) after he has a run. He will have one other run before Christmas, and maybe one after Christmas, before going to Cheltenham.”
Barry Geraghty is likely to maintain his partnership with Big Zeb on Sunday, but Willie Mullins has indicated that Barker, a 15-length winner over Forpadydeplasterer in a Grade One at Punchestown last April, may miss out on the €45,000 Fortria.
Sunday’s other Grade Two is the €40,000 Lismullen Hurdle in which Big Zeb’s stable companion, Voler La Vedette, is one of 14 entries after the forfeit stage.
However, Murphy reported yesterday she is likely to run instead at Down Royal the day before.
Noel Meade has left three in the Lismullen, including the Champion Hurdle fifth Muirhead, while the Coral Cup winner, Ninetieth Minute, is also a possible starter in the two-and-a-half-mile event.
The brilliant Dunguib is an entry for the Grade Three For Auction Novice Hurdle, but trainer Philip Fenton said he is likely to go straight to the Royal Bond at Fairyhouse later month.
“We thought about the For Auction because he would have got in without a penalty, but he is more likely to go for the Royal Bond,” Fenton said.
Some Present, a three-quarter-length runner-up to Sweeps Hill at Punchestown last time, is a For Auction possible, while Edward O’Grady yesterday confirmed his former top-class hurdler, Catch Me, will take part in the Listed novice chase on the same card.
Aidan O’Brien yesterday revealed that Rip Van Winkle has not had an entirely smooth build-up to the Breeders’ Cup Classic. The Sussex Stakes and QEII winner’s foot troubles are well documented but a problem with a previously unaffected foot beset him during preparations for Saturday night.
“The horses arrived on Sunday. They’ll go on the track tomorrow and have a trot and a canter,” O’Brien said. “Rip has been swimming against the tide all season and he’s had bits and pieces of problems coming into this race, with one of his feet that hasn’t been problematic thus far (this season).
“I hope it isn’t going to affect him and we will see him out on the track tomorrow.”
O’Brien’s team at the weekend also includes Mastercraftsman, winner of the Irish 2000 Guineas and St James’s Palace Stakes this season. “Mastercraftsman definitely runs in the Dirt Mile. For us the best performance he has ever put in was over six furlongs on fast ground at the Curragh (last year in the Phoenix Stakes),” O’Brien added.
Nicholls may rely on My Will
LAST SEASON’S Grand National third, My Will, could attempt to give British champion trainer Paul Nicholls a hat-trick of victories in Saturday’s Grade One feature at Down Royal, writes Brian O’Connor.
After wins for Taranis in 2007 and Kauto Star last year, Nicholls’ sole option this time for the Champion Chase is My Will, who also ran fifth in the Gold Cup last season.
Leading the home team will be Jim Dreaper’s Welsh National winner Notre Pere, while another likely starter is the 2006 Gold Cup hero War Of Attrition.
Dessie Hughes is strongly represented among the 14 entries for the €140,000 highlight, but is keeping an eye on the weather to decide if he runs either Schindlers Hunt or Siegemaster.
“Schindlers Hunt won’t run if it is heavy. At the moment we would like to run him, but the forecast for Friday is bad,” the Curragh trainer said yesterday. “We were half thinking of running Siegemaster in the second-season novice race on the same card, but if it came up heavy we might chance him in the big one.”
Saturday’s main support, the Grade Two Ladbrokes Chase, is a more likely target for Arkle winner Forpadydeplasterer than Sunday’s Fortria at Navan.
Paul Carberry returns to action at Fairyhouse this afternoon after having to cry off his rides last Saturday after failing a breathalyser test for alcohol.
The former champion jockey teams up with Gem Daly for the three-mile Beginners Chase, where Noel Meade’s horse will be having his first start for over a year-and-a-half. Gem Daly was highly promising as a staying hurdler and finished runner-up to Trafford Lad in a Grade One at Navan towards the end of 2007. Carberry’s sister, Nina, and Limerick trainer Enda Bolger are always a partnership to reckon with, and the Wexford winner Arabella Boy looks capable of a follow-up in the novice hurdle.
