Medermit is Alan King's chance for the Cheltenham Festival winners circle - Horse Racing Updates
Trainer, Alan King, has declared Medermit to be the horse that is most likely to get him his first Grade 1 win at the Cheltenham Festival since 2008. Medermit is still competing bravely for the number one spot in the Irish Independent Arkle Chase.
King made this declaration to reporters who attended the media day that he held at his Barbury Castle base on Tuesday. The trainer last brought in Grade 1 winners at the fixture with Nenuphar Collonges, champion of the Albert Bartlett Novices Hurdle, and
Katchit, winner of the Champion Hurdle.
King told reporters, “I think Medermit’s my best chance of the week and I thought that even before Sandown (when winning the Sicilly Isles).” Medermit, after debuting in a chase at Aintree and winning, has failed to make much of an impression in the horseracing
world, especially when he refused the long odds-on at Huntingdon. On the other hand, King defended the horse by saying that Huntingdon was nothing but a jinx and that the horse is not a natural front-runner but he had no other choice that day. King has told
reporters that the horse has improved by leaps and bounds and that Robert Thornton, who is also known as Choc, mastered the horse as a jockey at Sandown.
King said that, “I was delighted with him at Sandown –the way he travelled and jumped was perfect and it made the choice to drop him back to two miles a simple one.”
King is also likely to have another live contestant on the festival’s opening day in the Stan James Champion Hurdle with Mille Chief, who bagged himself the Kingwell Hurdle and is as big as 12-1 for the Champion Hurdle.
Mille Chief, who is five years old, has not yet been beaten over hurdle from two starts this year and King believes that he could still progress on better ground. The trainer told the media that although people are saying that he had a tough race on Saturday,
he does not agree because Thornton only had trouble with the horse in the final leg of the race. Although the horse is still about 10 pounds shy of Champion Hurdle class, he has never had the chance to run on good ground, according to King.
Paddy Power has picked Medermit as the favourite for the Arkle and Mille Chief to place in the Champion Hurdle at a 25-1 odd.
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