Gordon Elliott’s promising novice chaser Imagine could head across the Irish Sea for a Grade One start at Kempton on Boxing Day.
The five-year-old began his chasing career this season, starting out at Fairyhouse in a beginners event he won by a comfortable two and a half lengths.
He then stepped up in class at Punchestown late last month to contest the Grade Two Craddockstown Novice Chase.
Under Jack Kennedy, Imagine was required to dig deeper than on debut but he did so to come home the winner when crossing the line half a length ahead of John Ryan’s Lucid Dreams.
A step up in trip is now afoot and so too is a step up in grade, as the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day is pencilled into his diary – a Grade One event run over an extended three miles.
Alternatively, Imagine holds two entries at Leopardstown’s festive meeting, over two miles and a furlong in the Racing Post Novice Chase and over three miles and half a furlong in the Neville Hotels Novice Chase – both Grade Ones. He is also in Limerick’s Guinness Faugheen Novice Chase over nearly two and a half miles.
Imagine is owned by Andy and Gemma Brown of Caldwell Construction, whose racing manager Joey Logan said of the gelding: “We’re very happy with him, to be honest. He stepped up from his beginners in Fairyhouse and won the Grade Two and we were very happy with that.
“He wants further really, two miles is a bit short and we’re hoping we might step him up at Christmas time. I think the further he goes, the better he’ll be. We’re looking at the Grade One on Boxing Day at Kempton, that’s a possibility.
“He’ll have an entry and we’ll sit down with Gordon to discuss. If not, it’ll be Leopardstown but that’s what we’re thinking of at the moment.”
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