Poker De Sivola to miss out on the French Gold Cup – Horse Racing News
Ferdy Murphy, trainer of champion race-horse Poker De Sivola is rumoured to have decided to abandon plans to run in the race-horse in the Grand Steeple Chase de Paris scheduled to take place at Auteuil in the coming month.
The reason for this decision, according to Murphy himself, is that the French Gold Cup race is far too soon for the horse, who just a week ago, won the Bet365 Gold Cup.
Although trainer Murphy had high hopes and plans for a successful cross-Channel race with Poker De Sivola, the colt who is eight years of age and is owned by David Johnson, unexpectedly won the race at Sandown last Saturday. The horse had shown suprising
skill, albeit a little late, under jockey Timmy Murphy.
Even so, the trainer has expressed his belief that Poker De Sivalo has lost quite a bit of his enthusiasm after finishing the previous race and travelling a distance to France is likely to add to the diminishing morale of the race-horse which will lead to
a less than satisfactory performance.
Trainer Murphy, when interviewed by reporters, has said that the horse was let out for a little gallop after Saturday’s race and he was “fairly flat” at that time. Since he has been training Poker De Sivola for quite some time, he is well acquainted with
the manner of the horse and he knows that his low spirits, as well as performance, will be worsened by a race too soon.
The trainer further revealed that the decision about the race in France will most likely be finalised by next Friday and he regrets that the event is scheduled too soon for Poker since it was one that he and his team had really looked forward to be a part
of. However, he believes that ignoring Poker De Sivola’s current condition and still making him run would be unfair with the horse.
Poker De Sivola is all set to go through next season with a light campaign, the major target of which will be John Smith’s Grand National, a race for which he is at 25-1 with Bet365. Murphy hopes to win the cross-country at Cheltenham as well.
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