Coudray stays on track

It was reported last night that Le Coudray's eagerly awaited fencing debut in Sunday's Drinmore Chase at Fairyhouse will go ahead despite some uncertainty about who will ride the horse.

Conor O'Dwyer is the first choice of owner JP McManus and trainer Christy Roche but the Gold Cup winning jockey may yet be claimed by Arthur Moore who has two entries, Masalarian and Ellenjay, in the Grade One contest.

Some sources even suggested yesterday that Le Coudray, who is vying for favouritism in the Drinmore ante-post market with Macs Gildoran, may not even take his place in Sunday's race without O'Dwyer. However, that was scotched by McManus's racing manager, Frank Berry.

"Le Coudray is a probable runner and Risk Accessor is in it too. We haven't even discussed jockeys yet. The horses will do a bit on either Thursday or Friday and at the moment Le Coudray is a probable," said Berry.

Earlier Roche had emphasised the wish in the Le Coudray camp for O'Dwyer to ride the ex-French horse who hasn't run in almost two years.

"If Conor is available he will ride. If he isn't we will see who is available on the day. We will have to see what happens," the Curragh trainer said.

Roche did confirm that the exciting novice Like-A-Butterfly is on target for the Royal Bond Hurdle and is pleased that the English raider Castleshane will also be in the race.

"That horse should bring some pace to the race. Castleshane doesn't look like he takes prisoners and I had been worried the Butterfly might have to make the pace," he said.

Roche will be taking the McManus colours to Thurles this afternoon where the smart handicap hurdler Vivo makes his first start over fences in the Beginners Chase. The famous colours will also be seen on Get It On in the INH Stallion Owners Hurdle.

One name who will not be at the meeting, however, is Paul Carberry who is taking the day off to be ready for the weekend festival at Fairyhouse where his rides include Limestone Lad in the Hatton's Grace Hurdle.

"The knee I hurt at Naas on Saturday is still a little sore so I'm just taking the day off. I will wait for the weekend and I should be grand for that," Carberry said yesterday.

Vivo's race looks an intriguing contest and the winner could be Good Shuil who was running an eye-catching race when falling behind Macs Gildoran at Navan recently.

Meanwhile, Ted Walsh last night confirmed that Commanche Court would be a definite runner in the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup at Newbury on Saturday - and that his son, Ruby, would ride.

He said: "He has gone the right way since his run at Navan and we will have a crack at the Hennessy.

"It's a help having 11st 10lb instead of 12st but not much."

The top weight in the race is set to be the Henrietta Knight-trained Lord Noelie, who fell on his reappearance behind Irish-trained Sackville in the Peterhouse Group Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby this month.

Commanche Court, third to Lyreen Wonder in the Troytown Chase at Navan recently, was runner-up behind Young Spartacus in the Racing Post Chase at Kempton in February.

Money continued to pile onto Take Control for the Hennessy - with bookmakers predicting he could become the new favourite.

Coral report that he has been the best backed horse with the firm for the second consecutive day. The Martin Pipe-trained gelding is now 4 to 1 (from 5 to 1) second favourite, behind the 5 to 2 market leader Montifault.

Norman Williamson was yesterday confirmed as the rider of Ad Hoc in the big race. The booking for the Paul Nicholls-trained runner was made after Mick Fitzgerald was unable to take the mount when he lost his appeal against a six-day riding ban.