Clan to follow the Star
PAUL NICHOLLS will send dual Ladbrokes King George VI Chase winner Clan Des Obeaux down the Kauto Star route this season.
The 11- time champion trainer is aiming the eight- year- old at the Betfair Chase — a race the stable legend won on four occasions before his Christmas- time heroics.
Kauto Star’s record fifth triumph in the Kempton Grade 1 is unlikely to be surpassed, but Clan Des Obeaux could emulate the great Desert Orchid by taking three back- to- back.
“Our target is the Betfair Chase at Haydock at the end of November, so we don’t want to get him ready too quick, but I’m very, very happy with the way he looks and the way he’s going,” he told Betfair’s Racing Only Bettor Podcast.
Cyrname, the joint highest- rated jumps horse of 2019- 20, is being prepped for Down Royal’s Ladbrokes Champion Chase on October 31, also nominated for Grand National star Tiger Roll.
“He’s in as good a shape as he was this time last year,” Nicholls said.
The stable received a boost this summer when Grade One- winning mare Laurina arrived in a renewed link- up with owner Jared Sullivan.
Nicholls hopes a two- and- a- half- mile hurdle at Ascot towards the end of November might be suitable – and in the same month Topofthegame’s big target is the Ladbrokes Trophy.
❒ SOTTSASS has been retired following his Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe success on Sunday to stand at Coolmore Stud.