HE’S ALT OF IT
Defi Du Seuil can take full advantage of Altior absence
NICKY HENDERSON vowed “we’re just lending the crown” after being forced to call time on Altior’s Queen Mother Champion Chase hat-trick bid.
An attempt at a fifth Cheltenham Festival triumph was thrown into doubt when Henderson reported the 10-year-old to be lame. And, although the Seven Barrows trainer hadreported on Monday that Altior’s condition had “improved considerably”, he was forced to admit defeat yesterday.
“We were optimistic but I’m afraid this morning he hadn’t got better from yesterday,” he said.
“We don’t like giving up – we’re just lending the crown to somebody else for a year!” DEFI DU
In Altior’s absence,
SEUIL
(left) is the choice to get the better of Chacun Pour Soi in the Betway-sponsored Champion Chase (ITV, 3.30).
Philip Hobbs’ seven-year-old has the 2017 Triumph Hurdle and last year’s Marsh Novices’ Chase on an impressive CV – and a third Festival triumph beckons.
MINELLA INDO is fancied to make it back-to-back Festival triumphs.
It was the bookies who were cheering when Henry de Bromhead’s seven-year-old and Rachael Blackmore landed last year’s Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle at 50-1 – at the expense of 4-1 favourite Commander Of Fleet.
But the gelded son of Beat Hollow, who followed up with a defeat of Allaho at Punchestown last May, carries the punters’ hopes this time.
Minella Indo made his chasing debut over two and a half miles at Gowran
Park in November, returning an eight-length second to hotpot Laurina.
Going back up to three miles for a beginners’ chase at Navan in January, it was Minella Indo who was a warm order, and he justified odds of 2-5 with a length-and-a-half margin over Captain Cj.
The runner-up returned to the County Meath venue to land the Grade 2 Ten Up Novice Chase by six lengths, and Minella Indo, for whom rainsoftened ground is a boon, has much more to offer on his third attempt over the larger obstacles.
The latter comment Allaho, certainly applies to and the relentless winner of Ascot’s Reynoldstown Novices’ Chase, Copperhead,
who are Champ, preferred to who fluffed his lines with a fall here on New Year’s Day.