Friend and Riverside among the seven entering Aon Chase
What A Friend, winner of the Totesport Gold Cup, is one of the seven entries to take part in the Aon Chase taking place at Newbury on Saturday. Also participating in the fixture is the William Hill King George VI Chase runner-up Riverside Theatre.
Owned partly by Sir Alex Ferguson, manager of Manchester United, What A Friend will be taking part in only his second race of the season. The horse, currently eight years of age, had to miss the races on the ground that was ruined by midwinter showers in
Cheltenham, which was his main target.
The last four runnings of the Grade 2 Chase have given out three winners under trainer Paul Nicholls, who also runs Noland, and What A Friend’s victory in the race will give Nicholls a fourth winner in the fifth running of the fixture.
What A Friend was beaten to first place by Denman in the 2009 Hennessey Gold Cup over course and distance, after which the eight-year-old won two Grade 1 chases. However, his only performance of the season, in November of last year, was a rather poor show
as the horse only managed to take up fifth position while Gold Cup winner Imperial Commander bagged himself the Betfair Chase which took place at Haydock.
Connections of Riverside Theatre, a colt of seven years old, have informed reporters that he has been able to recover rather well from the exertions that he took in Kempton four weeks ago. They have also expressed qualms about the horse taking part in the
Gold Cup, as they are unsure if the Riverside theatre will be able to adapt to the ground at Cheltenham.
Riverside Theatre has been chosen as Stan James favourite with odds 10-11, while What A Friend is cited to be at 13-8. Noland is as short as 12-1 and is the next name in the Stan James list.
Trainer Nicholls had to withdraw ante-post favourite Woolcombe Folly from the Grade 2 Game Spirit Chase and is now reliant on racehorse Tchico Polos, who is to go up against five others in the race sponsored by Totepool and run over two miles and one furlong.
The main rival for Polos is once again provided by Henderson, who is after Nicholls for his trainers’ title, in the form of French Opera.
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