Lydia Hislop Road To Cheltenham Novice Chasers

As the rain continued to fall long past its putative deadline at Ascot last Saturday, my confidence in Brain Power,s chances of eyeballing Un De Sceaux ebbed away rapidly. In the end, absolutely nothing went to plan.

Henderson had chucked this novice into open Grade One company in the hope of getting a strong pace, enabling him to settle and not have to cut out his own running. But Speredek hared off and Un De Sceaux loftily ignored him, meaning Brain Power had to stick with the favourite, was too fresh and therefore restrained with little cover.

This was also the softest ground he,d yet encountered and, as he threw in a series of sticky leaps, I assumed he was having trouble jumping out of it. Barring the fall two out, the only other clear-cut mistake he made was at the seventh but he got in too close or was too upright at a handful of other fences and I never felt confident he would complete.

He was labouring by the fourth last but had nonetheless responded to new rider Nico de Boinville's urgings to grind his way into a narrow second when lunging at the penultimate flight, failing to get high enough and taking a heavy fall. He was winded for some time afterwards.

In the aftermath, neither de Boinville nor Henderson felt Brain Power had jumped poorly but that may have been because they were more occupied by the testing ground having exposed a hitherto unknown breathing problem.

Henderson tweeted the following morning: "Pleased to report Brain Power trotted up 100% sound this morning, ate up and is absolutely fine, thankfully. Nico did report that he made a noise four out and it could be that his soft palate is malfunctioning so we will look further into that."

The clock is ticking on those investigations and, given Brain Power has also now failed to complete on his last two starts, it wouldn't be surprising if his trainer didn't rush him back for the Arkle. The horse is still unproven left-handed so Punchestown could prove both more suitable and timely.

Whatever, even though it's a long way back from here for his reputation and he's yet to be proved worthy of consideration at the top table, I remain of the view that Brain Power has prospects over fences - just not this season.

On the same Ascot card, the confusingly named Acting Lass continued his progress through the handicap ranks when beating more exposed rivals comfortably by two-and-a-quarter lengths in the earlier 2m5f chase. This was despite running down his fences, or jumping, to the left at most of the obstacles - albeit he was mostly straighter on the final circuit.

In a six-race career to date, he's yet to run on a left-handed track but this success propelled him beyond the 145 ceiling for the Close Brothers Novices' Handicap Chase and into JLT territory on paper.

Trainer Harry Fry will reportedly test whether he's up to that level in a Grade Two next month - either the Pendil at Kempton or back here at Ascot over three miles for the Reynoldstown. The horse is also unproven on anything other than soft ground.

At Haydock that same day, Testify made short work of his one remaining rival in the Grade Two 2m4f event after main market threat Positively Dylan took a tumble at the second fence. By contrast, the winner's jumping was thoroughly convincing and although he hung left in very testing ground after the last, he kept on well for a seven-length success.

Trainer Donald McCain expects owner Trevor Hemmings to want to head to Cheltenham and indicated he'd enter the horse in both the JLT and RSA Chases this week. McCain leans towards the former target, reasoning that Testify is "too slick a jumper" not to utilise that asset at the shorter trip.

He'd also prefer to go straight to Cheltenham without interlude with this three-times chase winner, whom he described as "chilled out" in attitude. The big question is whether Testify needs testing ground to perform - he flopped on his only spin on a sound surface, when chucked into Grade One company at last term's Grand National meeting.

On Saturday, McCain argued "he doesn't move like he must have soft ground" but more dated quotes betray a greater preoccupation with the going for this horse than this latest assertion would suggest.

Earlier in the week, Saint Calvados derided a 4lbs rise for his impressive Newbury success over the New Year by returning to the track and reprising that bold-jumping all-the-way success in a two-mile handicap by ten lengths.

The Arkle is now on his horizon, via a detour to Warwick for the Grade Two Kingmaker Novices' Chase next month - the ideal target for such a good jumper.

"He's really exciting," said trainer Harry Whittington, who's only housed him since late last year. "Aidan [Coleman, his rider] felt he was sharper for the run and his jumping was tidier. Keeping him in a handicap tells us whether we're good enough for graded races and I think we're pretty set for the Kingmaker.

"He’s got loads of gears and I can't see any reason why we'd step him up in trip."

If Saint Calvados's talent is not in doubt, his ability to handle a sounder surface may be. He's got a curling knee action and seems very much at home in deep ground but it is an unknown rather than a negative at this stage and is unlikely to be relevant to his chances at Warwick.

At Thurles last Sunday, Dinaria Des Obeaux happily bossed fellow mares by eight lengths in a Grade Two 2m4f event. She'd previously been all but brought down by the fall of Monalee in a Grade One against geldings at Leopardstown over Christmas.

However, her jumping had lacked fluency prior to that also and, even though she never once looked like falling, she wasn’t faultless here either. She might be best sticking to the enhanced mares’ chase programme rather than anything loftier.

Speaking of Monalee, as well as his Stayers' Hurdle engagement discussed above, he is entered in Sunday week's Grade One 2m5f Flogas Chase at the Dublin Festival rather than a putatively easier target over three miles at Naas this Sunday.

Finally, the good news for this column's 8/1 bet is that Presenting Percy's Festival target has reportedly been confirmed as the RSA Chase rather than the NH Chase. The same owner-trainer combination has the lurking Mall Dini for the longer event.

Interestingly, Presenting Percy is also declared to run over in the Grade Two Galmoy Hurdle for his unorthodox trainer Patrick Kelly at Gowran Park this week.