Nicholls reloads Bullets

Paul Nicholls hopes Dodging Bullets’ prolonged absence can ultimately work in his favour, with the horse lining up fresh to defend his Queen Mother champion chase crown at the cheltenham Festival.

The eight-year- old runs in the Game spirit chase at Newbury on saturday, his first outing since the 2015 Festival success, with Nicholls expressing delight at the gelding’s latest workout. sidelined by a bone splint on his off-fore leg, Dodging Bullets is 10-1 to win the champion chase this year.

Nicholls (right), who yesterday morning was supervising the clear-up after a flash flood on saturday night left part of his somerset stable submerged in three feet of water, prompting 15 horses to be evacuated, said: ‘This is the earliest we could have run him. he will come into this weekend fresh and have one run in preparation for cheltenham. instead of having a few hard scraps earlier in the season, it might work in his favour.

‘he has done loads of graft and had a racecourse gallop. i was thrilled with the way he worked on saturday morning. Whatever he does at Newbury, he will improve for the run but he is tidy enough to run a nice race.’

Nicholls’ hand for the Triumph hurdle strengthened significantly over the weekend. connetable — a gelding he compared to his 2011 Triumph hurdle winner Zarkandar — won saturday’s contenders hurdle at sandown. and yesterday Tommy silver was a facile winner of the scottish Triumph hurdle at Musselburgh. The duo are 12-1 and 14- 1 respectively for the Festival prize in a market shaken up by saturday’s defeat of antepost favourite ivanovich Gorbatov at leopardstown. Meanwhile, t r ai ner Nicky henderson is to investigate potential breathing issues with Peace and co after the gelding’s champion hurdle hopes were knocked sideways by his disappointing third in the contenders hurdle. ‘We’ll look at his breathing apparatus,’ said henderson, who was successful with cup Final and o o seven at Musselburgh yesterday.