Zarkandar on track as coughing scare fails to faze Nicholls

ZARKANDAR and Harry The Viking, two of the worst effected in the coughing scare which hit Paul Nicholls’ stable, are back on track for the Festival according to the champion trainer.

Unbeaten Zarkandar, 5-1 second favourite for the Champion Hurdle after last month’s Betfair Hurdle win at Newbury, was back on the gallops yesterday and Nicholls said: ‘Zarkandar cantered this morning and, like Harry The Viking, is back in the normal routine.

‘He was the worst effected and you would not have believed he would have been able to take part at Cheltenham.’

Harry The Viking, who is owned by Sir Alex Ferguson, is 8-1 joint favourite for the four-mile National Hunt Chase. Meanwhile, Betfred cut the Nicholls-trained Ulck Du Lin to 14-1 for the Fred Winter Juvenile Novices’ Handicap Hurdle.

He is the first French import to run in the race without previously racing in Britain, but Nicholls (left) denied that the ploy was part of a

masterplan to take advantage of a lenient handicap rating.

Nicholls, who intends sending 2008 Fred Winter winner Crack Away Jack back over fences in the Byrne Group Plate and saddling novice Toubab in the Grand Annual Chase, said: ‘He came over late and could be well handicapped but it’s not a plot.’

Alan King says Vendor, his 9-2 favourite in the Fred Winter, could also be ‘well in’. The trainer, whose fellow juvenile hurdlers Balder Succes and Grumeti are high in the betting for the Triumph, said: ‘I think he could be as good as the other two.’

He added that the Harry Redknapp-owned Bygones In Brid is unlikely to run in the Neptune Novices’ Hurdle at the Festival even if he wins at Taunton today.

FINGAL BAY has been ruled out of the Neptune Novices’ Hurdle after a training setback.

SAM Waley-cohen, Long Run’s jockey, has been booked to ride Nick Williams-trained Alfie Spinner in the National Hunt Chase.