WALK’S OVER FOR SAM

SAMCRO will step up to three miles for the Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot next Saturday.

Trainer Gordon Elliott made the tantalising entry for the Grade 1 stayers’ test after Samcro’s eight-length thumping by Buveur D’Air in the two-mile Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle a

fortnight ago.

But the six-year-old won’t make the Ascot line-up, instead remaining at the minimum trip for Leopardstown’s Ryanair Hurdle two weeks today.

“He won’t go to Ascot — he’ll go to Leopardstown over Christmas,” Elliott (right) said last night.

Samcro will then be readied for the Cheltenham Festival, where he will seek to deny Buveur D’Air a hat-trick of Champion Hurdle triumphs on March 12. “The plan is to stick to two miles, but Buveur D’Air will be impossible to beat if he’s in the same form at Cheltenham,” added Elliott.

NOT SOUND AS A POUND War Sound and Tom O’Brien power to victory at Aintree last month