Chatham Street Lad has the Marsh Novices’ Chase as his Cheltenham objective after connections took the Caspian Caviar Gold Cup winner out of his four other Festival engagements.
Trainer Michael Winters has removed the nine-year-old from the Sporting Life Arkle Trophy, the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase, the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase and the Ryanair to concentrate solely on the the Grade One novice chase over two and a half miles.
Winters is bringing Chatham Street Lad back to his peak after giving him a break following a defeat at Fairyhouse last month.
“He’s not out of the Marsh. He’s still in that one. That’s the race the owners want to run in,” said the County Cork handler on Wednesday. “He had a good break and we’ve taken him to the beach today to freshen him up.
“He’d had quite a bit of racing and he slightly disappointed the last day so we thought we’d freshen him up for Cheltenham. He cantered on the beach and in the water and he’s had some physio. He’s thriving.
“There were a lot of small things the last day. If we are going to run a good race the next day we are going to have to be 100 per cent.
“That’s what we’re aiming for and we think he has a good chance. We’d like to see plenty of rain in England.”