‘We had Araldur and Sceau Royal win the race in the past and it’s a strong possibility he will go there’

Alan King has big weekend plans for Sandown’s Grade 1 novice chase

WE GOT a good covering of snow on Saturday and it was pretty miserable that morning, but luckily it had disappeared by Sunday and did not cause too much disruption on a busy weekend up and down the country.

I was thrilled with the run of Sceau Royal in the Fighting Fifth, conditions looked pretty rough by the end of racing but all in all we were delighted with him again. He’s had a fine season already and put up another tough performance. The plan now would be to freshen him up and head to Kempton for the Christmas Hurdle on Boxing Day.

We’ll keep to hurdles with him for now but we can take another view after Kempton. We might have a break then and come back for the Game Spirit Chase at Newbury in the spring. His main target has been the Christmas Hurdle and he looks well on course for that.

We also took Notachance up to Newcastle for the Rehearsal but they went too quick for him and he was flat to the boards and was eventually pulled up. That was his first run of the season and we managed to get a good blow into him so he should come on plenty for the experience. The Classic Chase, which he won last season, is his main target this season and whether we run him once or go straight to Warwick I’m not totally sure. The longer trip in the Classic Chase will be much more his game than Newcastle.

Twilight Twist finished second at Newcastle behind a good horse of Dan Skelton’s in Too Friendly, who had already beaten one of mine called Oceanline at Stratford. He’s obviously pretty good and I was pleased from our run carrying a penalty. I’m sure he’ll continue to pay his way as he looks a progressive horse.

Valleres wasabit disappointing in the 2m7½f novice handicap chase and we might bring him back in trip and possibly put some headgear on him going forward. He was lazy and laboured on Saturday and I’m sure he’s much better than that so we’ll just change a few things.

At Newbury, we had two runners in the Ladbrokes Trophy but unfortunately they were both pulled up. Canelo was out of his comfort zone a little bit but he’s got another run under his belt now and I think we’ll look at the Rowland Meyrick at Wetherby on Boxing Day, which he won last season. The ground was probably just a little bit slow for Potterman, he was always in top gear throughout the race. I have no immediate plans with him, so we will just regroup and have a think.

Nina The Terrier is fine after her fall in the Listed Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle at Newbury on Saturday. She trotted up grand but I think the problem was that she got the rein wrapped around her leg and that stopped her getting up but luckily she’s okay. We’ll give her a little break now as that was her third race of the season, then I’ll try and find a race at the end of January or February-time for her before we’ll look to go onto Cheltenham for the Mares’ Novice Hurdle. She’ll have a holiday for now.

Dino Velvet is a remarkable horse and he got within a short head of winning the 2m3f handicap chase at Doncaster on Friday. We’ve kept him going a fair bit longer than we usually would, he’s a goodground horse and with the weather the way it’s been we just thought we’d keep rolling

the dice. I think the winner, Barton Knoll, was just idling a

little bit but it was still a very good run from Dino Velvet and he’ll go off for a little break now. We’ll have him back in the spring and summer, he’s a smashing little horse and everyone in the yard is very fond of him.

It was great to see Call Of The Wild win at Kempton earlier last week, he was beaten on his hurdling debut by Neil King’s horse Onemorefortheroad, who won theListed intermediate hurdle on Saturday, so it shows what we were taking on that day. Making the running on

Monday wouldn’t have been ideal but we got away with it. He’s a horse I think a lot of so we’ll give him a nice break now and probably bring him back in the spring.

On the Flat at Chelmsford on Friday night I was happy with the run of Super Lover in third. He’s a twoyear-old we really like, he was drawn very wide in ten and on a limb which wasn’t ideal but he finished his race off really strongly. I’ll have a word with owners but my gut feeling is that we’ll put him away for next season, but he’s a horse with a good future.