Nicky Henderson has reflected on the Arkle picture after the chasing debuts of his Lulamba and Willie Mullins' Kopek Des Bordes, with Sandown pencilled in for his youngster.
The Seven Barrows-trained four-year-old won at a sun-drenched Exeter on Monday, where four of the 12 fences were omitted, with Henderson delighted with that chasing debut.
When he got home, though, he watched the replay of Kopek Des Bordes winning at Navan by 13 lengths, with the Mullins horse promoted to Arkle favouritism for Cheltenham in March.
More immediately, Lulamba could head to Sandown for the Grade 1 Henry VIII Novices' Chase on December 6.
Henderson said on Racing TV: “He’s fine, I didn’t see him out this morning it was an early start.
“Again, the sun completely ruined that as an education as much as a spectacle but he’s come out of that well.
“He’s a horse who is amazing. After the Triumph last year we had no intention of running him again and he was so fresh after it we were going to run him at Aintree, but that was too quick and we went to Punchestown.
“He loves everything. So if we can come back quickly we’d like to go to Sandown for the Henry VIII.
“He was very good all the way and pulling him up was the hardest bit. It was all very enjoyable until you got home and had to watch Kopek Des Bordes in Ireland! There’s nothing I can do about that, he looked very good too.
“It’s interesting that two Arkle protagonists came out within an hour of each other but so be it.
“It’s a long way away, but it looks like the plan for both of them. There’s a lot of water to go under the bridge between now and then. We’d like to go to Sandown but we’ll see.”
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