Ballyalton to strike for red-hot Williams
Trainer has lightly-raced chaser in peak form Altior unlikely to run before Champion Chase
Last weekend Ian Williams won the November Handicap and Elite Hurdle within 20 minutes and can maintain his stable’s cracking early season form by winning this jump season’s first major handicap chase, the Betvictor Gold Cup at Cheltenham, with Ballyalton.
The 10-year-old, bought by golfer Lee Westwood as a birthday present for his father John, is on the comeback trail. He has won over course and distance but, arguably, his stand out form was his 4½-length defeat by subsequent Champion Hurdler Faugheen – who makes his own comeback from injury in the Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown tomorrow – in the 2014 Neptune at Cheltenham.
Some water has passed under the bridge since and he was out for a year after winning the Close Brothers Novice Handicap Chase at the track’s 2016 festival. However, he made a satisfactory return over hurdles at Aintree in October and Williams has been at pains to protect him from the bounce effect that often seems to catch out horses second time out after a lay-off.
“He’s quite fragile,” said Williams, who should also go close with his Elite winner London Prize in tomorrow’s Greatwood Hurdle.
“He has only run 15 times, but he has been first or second in nine of them. It was quite important his comeback wasn’t too testing, particularly as we missed the race we’d planned for a week earlier. I hope he doesn’t bounce but I can only say how I’ve found him since and he seems in great order.
“He likes Cheltenham, copes with the undulations and seems to have retained his enthusiasm. He won’t be lacking in fitness. It’s just whether he has the ability and we get that bit of luck that you need in a race like this.”
Kerry Lee won five on the bounce with Kylemore Lough, including a Grade One at Fairyhouse, but he failed to win last season and now has his first run since joining Harry Fry.
He has a big weight, though, in a race where there will undoubtedly be a few well-handicapped horses lower down the weights.
West Approach can win the Mallardsjewellers.com Novice Chase, one of those ubiquitous three-horse races this autumn, for Colin Tizzard while, on his last day of being allowed to claim 7lb, James Bowen can win the Regulatory Finance Solutions Handicap Hurdle on Nicky Henderson’s improving stayer Thomas Campbell.
Henderson reported yesterday that his Arkle Chase winner Altior came through a procedure to rectify a problem with his wind yesterday. However, the prescription includes two weeks’ box rest, followed by three weeks of walking, which means time is going to be short for Henderson to get a race into him before the Champion Chase in March.