RACING:RUBI LIGHT will revert back to the tried-and-trusted for the rest of this season with Rob Hennessy's Grade One winner set to run at Gowran next month in preparation for another tilt at Cheltenham's Ryanair Chase.
After an honourable second to Synchronized in the Lexus Chase at Leopardstown over Christmas – his first start at three miles – connections had considered giving Rubi Light another go at the trip in the Hennessy Gold Cup.
However Hennessy said yesterday they are ready to pull back in distance and the Co Meath-based trainer will train Rubi Light for another crack at the Ryanair in which he ran third in 2011.
“The plan is to go for the Red Mills at Gowran, a race he won last year, and then go to the Ryanair. We will leave three miles for the rest of the season. He’s only young and we don’t want to put the gun to his head too soon.”
“It would be great if there was a bit of juice in the ground at Cheltenham this time. He ran well in the Ryanair last year but the first thing Andrew (Lynch) said getting off him was that he’d have won if it had been a bit softer,” he added.
Next month’s Red Mills event could also be a target for Gordon Elliott’s Gold Cup outsider Jessie’s Dream who has yet to appear this season but remains a 25 to 1 shot in some ante-post lists for Cheltenham.
“He’s in good form and looks in good shape, so hopefully he’ll be ready to run soon,” said Elliott yesterday. “He will either go for the Hennessy or the Red Mills Chase at Gowran Park for his first run back and that will tell us a lot more. We still hope he’ll go for the Gold Cup but we’ll obviously have to see how he gets on next time.”
The Hennessy is the definite option for another Gold Cup outsider in Boston’s Angel who missed out on the Lexus due to a setback.
“He’s back in full work now. I just wasn’t 100 per cent happy with him leading up to Christmas, which is why he didn’t run in the Lexus,” trainer Jessica Harrington said yesterday.
“We had planned to run him in blinkers there and that is what he’ll do next time when he runs in the Hennessy at Leopardstown. We’ll see how he gets on there before making any plans for the rest of the season,” she added.
Willie Mullins’s Ut De Sivola, as low as 12 to 1 in some betting lists for the Triumph Hurdle, is a leading name among the dozen entries left in Punchestown’s Grade Three Juvenile Hurdle feature this Saturday.
Also included among the possibles are the Grade Two Christmas winner His Excellency who won a memorable race at Leopardstown under a vintage Davy Russell ride.
His old rival One Cool Shabra also figures as do the maiden winners Chill and Face Value. Hisaabaat, runner up to Sportsmaster at Naas on Sunday, is also among the dozen.
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