Sizing Europe with reservations on the ground conditions of the King George contest
When racing a horse in one of the steeplechase features, the connections, specifically the trainer has to make a 360 degrees evaluation before setting the entry for the trip. Falling down one of the fences and sustaining a fatal injury due to the absence of good ground, can be disastrous for any stable.
A very recent important loss that was incurred by trainer, Paul Nicholls, was in the StanJames.com International Hurdle. The trainer won the race with Zarkandar but, lost Cristal Bonus in the pursuit of the title. Upon finding out that two of his ace horses, Big Buck’s and Al Ferof, have incurred injuries that can have serious repercussions in case he keeps them active during the season, has made the trainer to decide otherwise and race them only when the new season begins.
In the same way, keeping in mind the ground conditions that might not turn out to be very favourable for Sizing Europe trained by, Henry de Bromhead, will highly likely miss the King George VI Chase in the wake of the ground conditions.
"It's not 100% just yet that he isn't going to Kempton, but at this stage we are leaning towards Leopardstown," said De Bromhead.
"Which race he runs in will obviously depend on the ground. We've got the option of the Lexus or the Dial-A-Bet and we'll choose the best race for the conditions."
The trainer has based his decision for racing or not racing the horse strictly on the ground condition basis. The ten-year-old bay gelding, who is well on his way to getting eleven soon, is in a supreme form. The trainer will never want to make the wrong choice and end up disrupting his bid for a hat-trick during the new season where ever he races next.
One of the most threatening entries, Al Ferof, has been withdrawn from the trainer, Paul Nicholls, due to an injury that did not support participation at such a challenging level.
However, the competition is still intense with the betting bar going high for the Nicky Henderson trained, Long Run. In the absence of the previous champion, Kauto Star and now, Al Ferof, there are quite high chances for the title going to the Nicky Henderson stable once again.
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