Kirby keeping options open for Lady Buttons
COLIN TIZZARD is hopeful that steeplechasing superstar Thistlecrack can make a winning return over hurdles at Newbury following a injury-hit year.
Tom Scudamore’s mount lines up in the Ladbrokes Long Distance Hurdle, a race that the precocious horse won two years ago before switching to larger obstacles.
Though Thistlecrack made history by becoming the first novice to win Kempton’s King George VI Chase on Boxing Day, he’s not raced since being beaten by the ill-fated former Grand National winner Many Clouds at Cheltenham in January.
However the unknown is whether Thistlecrack, 10 next month, has retained his previous speed, zest and flamboyance.
Tizzard said: “Thistlecrack has done plenty of work and is ready to run.
“He’s bound to improve, but he has been on the go for some time now and we’re very happy with him.
“He had a jump on the grass on Wednesday and he’s ready to get started.”
The Dorset handler is under no illusions about the task facing his charge, with Harry Fry’s defending champion Unowhatimeanharry in opposition.
Unowhatimeanharry has already had a run this autumn, winning at Aintree, but does have to concede 6lb to Tizzard’s returning star.
“There wouldn’t be much between them, I wouldn’t have thought,” added Tizzard. “We couldn’t go for the King George without a run, so he goes to Newbury and, all being well, he’ll then head to Kempton.”
Meanwhile Coneygree, the 2015 Cheltenham Gold Cup hero, heads a field of 21 for the Ladbrokes Trophy at Newbury tomorrow.
The 10-year-old, trained by Mark Bradstock, will bid to emulate his half-brother Carruthers who took this prize in 2011.
Connections will be hoping for better luck after Coneygree sustained an overreach that led to him being pulled up in the Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby last month.
The aforementioned Tizzard, who struck with Native River 12 months ago, is represented by Royal Vacation. The seven-yearold made his seasonal debut at Wetherby when third to Guitar Pete. TRAINER Phil Kirby is considering options in both Britain and Ireland for his star mare Lady Buttons.
The seven-year-old won four times over hurdles and kicked off the new campaign by finishing second to subsequent Kempton scorer La Bague Au Roi at Wetherby on Charlie Hall Chase day – the race was only decided on the run-in.
Lady Buttons then made a successful debut over fences at Bangor and Kirby is looking forward to getting her back on the racecourse. The Richmond trainer said: “She’s in good order and pretty much ready to run.
“There are a couple of ordinary novice chases we’re looking at, one at Wetherby on December 9 and another at Newcastle on December 14. If it looked like one of those was a penalty kick we might run her just to give her a bit more experience really.
“If not, we could just run her in the Listed mares’ novice chase at Warwick, which is also on December 14.”
Lady Buttons will not be wrapped in cotton wool, with her North Yorkshire trainer considering two outings before the end of 2017.
Kirby added: “There are a couple of options over Christmas, too. There’s a mares’ chase at Doncaster (December 29) and also a mares’ hurdle at Leopardstown.
“We feel she doesn’t really need a big gap between her races, which is why we’re thinking of running her before Christmas, but if we felt it didn’t fit in then we could just wait.
“I’d like to stick to chasing if we can, but even though there’s a good mares’ programme, there actually isn’t over two miles. There is no perfect race for her at Cheltenham in March, so we’ll just have to see what happens between now and then.”