Philip Hobbs announces his decision to scratch Captain Chris from the Thetote.com Punchestown Gold Cup
Captain Chris, who is trained by Philip Hobbs for owner, Mrs. Diana L. Whateley, has been scratched from the Grade 1 Thetote.com Punchestown Gold Cup, which is scheduled to take place at Punchestown on 28th April, 2012.
Eight runners will compete in this event over a distance of 3 miles and 1 furlong for the purse of €84,000.
Since the surface of the track has been labelled heavy, Hobbs does not want to risk an injury to his best runner.
He stated to the press that: "We've decided not to run Captain Chris on Saturday. We're not sure about his stamina and I think it would be unfair to ask him to go three miles on ground that is going to be very soft indeed."
Hobbs further elaborated that none of his runners will compete in the event and he has scratched his runners from the events which were scheduled to take place on Friday, 26th April, 2012.
Captain Chris, the son of King´s Theatre, out of Function Dream, successfully completed a hat-trick in 2011, but his introductory race to 2012 was not impressive.
Mounted by jockey, Richard Johnson, the eight-year-old gelding was pulled up from the Grade 2 Argento Chase (Registered As The Cotswold Chase), which took place at Cheltenham on 28th January, 2012.
The second start to the season was not impressive, as the bay gelding could have done much better.
He finished fourth in the Grade 1 Ryanair Chase (Registered As The Festival Trophy Steeple Chase) on 15th March, 2012, in the Cheltenham Festival, where he finished 5 lengths adrift of the third place finisher, Medermit.
Whelped on 23rd February, 2004, Captain Chris started his career on 12th February, 2010 at Kempton.
He delivered a solid race as he finished fourth in a line-up of seventeen runners in the betdaq.co.uk Maiden Open National Hunt Flat Race.
Over the course of his career, he has shown drastic improvement as he has secured six victories since then. He triumphed in the Grade 1 Ryanair Novice Chase at Punchestown on 5th May, 2011, where he defeated, Realt Dubh, by
1 ¼ lengths.
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