Newbury next for Smad Place

Alan King

Like trainers across the country Alan King is making up the plans for his horses pretty much as he goes along.

King had planned to run promising juvenile Smad Place in the Finale Hurdle on Chepstow's Welsh National card until that was wiped out by the weather. But, although that meeting has been rescheduled for the new year, the trainer is taking a safety-first policy and the horse will now run at Newbury on Wednesday, weather permitting, in the Happy Birthday Laura Jones Juvenile Hurdle.

Speaking on his website the trainer said: “We were concentrating on Chepstow on Monday and it was disappointing that we lost the Welsh National fixture.

"Happily, the Chepstow executive moved quickly and have rearranged what is their most prestigious meeting for January 8th, but you have to take your chances when they come along, and, while Smad Place's target since he won so well at Newbury has been the Grade One Finale Juvenile Hurdle, it would be silly to wait for Chepstow and possibly miss out again, so the plan is to go back to Newbury for the Bathwick Tyres Juvenile Hurdle next Wednesday.

"They still have snow at Newbury but it is protecting the ground from the frost, and Stephen Higgins and his team seem optimistic that if the forecast for higher temperatures at the weekend is correct they will be able to race.

"Smad Place is a fine young prospect and is already among the favourites for the Triumph Hurdle. I would describe him as being more like Franchoek, who was strong but not speedy like Penzance, for example. He is not the flashiest of work horses but he’s been ticking away well and breezed up on Saturday morning. The postponement meant that I was able to get another school or two into him, and, if all goes well, he would then taken in the big juvenile hurdle trial at Cheltenham at the end of next month.”

King is looking at Old Benny as his runner for the Welsh National, a race that he won in 2006 with Halcon Genelardais. Old Benny, who won the National Hunt Chase at the Cheltenham Festival two years ago, was having his first run since February when he finished seventh at Newbury two weeks ago and King has welcomed the extra time for the horse to recover.

"He ran well for a long way at Newbury on his most recent run, but I was worried that the Welsh marathon might come too soon after that, so the fact that the meeting has been put back 12 days is a blessing in disguise for us. He has been Hobdayed since last year after we discovered that he was struggling with his breathing and I do think that there is still an engine there and that he might be capable of winning a decent handicap later in the year. Another that we might aim at Chepstow is Invictus, who is an Irish point-to-point winner that we like a lot."

Paul Wheeler

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