Henry De Bromhead is confident A Plus Tard is ready to defend his Betfair Chase title at Haydock on Saturday.
A brilliant 22-length winner from Royale Pagaille 12 months ago, the subsequent Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup hero is 2/5 with the sponsors to follow up.
The trainer said on Monday: "He’s done plenty and we’re happy with him. When you’re only running these horses three or four times a year you want these runs to count, and we hope he’s as well as he was last year so fingers crossed, he’s ready for a nice run. We’re looking forward to Saturday. He seems in great form; he’s working really well and Rachael (Blackmore) schooled him this morning and he jumped well so all seems good at the moment."
Rising nine, A Plus Tard improved his Timeform rating by eight pounds to 178 through the last campaign. And there’s a chance there could be even more to come.
“I think he just strengthened up last year, it’s just maturity. Other than that, it’s very hard to give any other reason for his improvement – maybe Rachael riding him slightly different but not a whole lot. He just seemed to find himself last year and kept on improving," the trainer added.
“Has he improved again? It’s very hard to gauge that – you don’t really gauge that at home, or I don’t. I think you see that more on the track, with these horses if you were pushing them to that kind of level at home you’d probably be burned out.
"I hope he has. Physically he looks an even stronger horse again but we’ll see and Saturday will tell us a lot."
The ground at Haydock is currently good to soft, soft in places on the chase course and isn't expected to dry out significantly.
Clerk of the course Kirkland Tellwright said: "We've wet days forecast for Tuesday and Thursday and if the forecast is correct we certainly won't be any quicker than we are now. I'm looking at 8mm on Tuesday and Thursday and 3-4mm on Friday. That will suit us well."
The Betfair Chase – sponsors odds: 2/5 A Plus Tard, 10/3 Protektorat, 7/1 Bristol De Mai, 12/1 Eldorado Allen, 20/1 Frodon.
More from Sporting Life
Safer gambling
We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.
Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.