Only very dry conditions at Ascot will prevent Fakir D’Oudairies from trying to pull off back-to-back victories in this weekend’s Grade One feature.
Confirmation on Monday that his old rival Allaho will miss Cheltenham’s Ryanair Chase meant Fakir D’oudairies was promoted to the top of ante-post betting lists for the festival highlight in just over four weeks.
The JP McManus-owned star has never beaten Allaho and last year missed out on Cheltenham entirely.
Instead, having landed the Betfair Ascot Chase, he waited for Liverpool in April, a move that paid off handsomely with victory in the Marsh Chase.
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With Allaho ruled out due to an abdominal bleed discovered at the weekend, the McManus team are still intent on targeting Ascot despite its proximity to Cheltenham.
“Bar getting a very dry track at Ascot I can’t see it interfering with the plan,” said McManus’s racing manager Frank Berry. “It [skipping Cheltenham] worked well last year going that route but maybe this will open up the whole thing a little bit.”
Initial bookmaker reaction to Allaho’s defection was to make Fakir D’oudairies a general 3-1 favourite for the Ryanair.
He also tops the betting (5-4 with the sponsors) for this Saturday’s race where a maximum of six opponents are likely to include Shishkin and the Paul Nicholls-trained Pic D’Orhy.
Ground conditions at Ascot are good with watering taking place there.
With Mark Walsh on the sidelines following his fall at the Dublin Racing Festival, JJ Slevin is likely to maintain the partnership with Fakir D’Oudairies after winning at Thurles on him last month.
Walsh faces a race against time to be fit for Cheltenham after damaging vertebrae in a fall at Leopardstown. That came shortly after his return from a six-week injury layoff.
“He will be meeting his surgeon in a surgeon in a fortnight so that will put a bit more light on it,” Berry said on Monday. “I wouldn’t rule Cheltenham at the minute, but he’d need everything to go right.”
What about Shishkin?
Nicky Henderson is confident the Ascot team will provide enough watering to allow him step Shishkin up in trip for Saturday’s contest.
“I’m sure they are watering, there’s only Newbury that can’t water, so I’m hoping Ascot will have done so,” he said.
Willie Mullins has had pretty much nothing go his way this term with Allaho and has had to draw stumps for the season with the Cheverly Park Stud-owned star after an anxious weekend.
“He worked very well on Saturday. He came back, dried off, we put him into his box and had his lunch. Then after lunch we found him to be a little bit distressed and we thought he was getting a colic, but it didn’t look like a colic. It was something else,” said Mullins on Monday.
“We brought him straight down to Fethard Equine Hospital and they found that he had got a bleed in his abdomen, which is hugely unusual. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in a horse before.
“He was comfortable over the weekend, but still critical. This morning he moved off the critical list. His bloods and everything have come down to normal levels. I got good word from the hospital this morning but, unfortunately, he won’t make Cheltenham. That’s him for the season. We don’t know what caused the bleeding, there was no fracture or anything, but something caused it and that’s going to take a while to heal.
“Hopefully, he’ll make a good recovery and he’ll be back for next season.”
