Trio attack set by trainer, Henderson, for the King George VI Chase
The 2012 Boxing Day will be completely different as the genius of his profession trainer, Nicky Henderson, has prepared his arsenal of not one or two but three entries for the feature, Grade 1 King George VI Chase. The trainer has picked out Long Run, Riverside Theatre and Finian’s Rainbow for the thrilling race that was the forte for now retired, Kauto Star.
The Robert Waley-Cohen owned, Long Run, was nothing less than decent in the seasonal debut at Haydock. He chased the Paul Nicholls’ trained, Silviniaco Conti, in the Grade 1 Betfair Chase, but missed on the final 2 ½ lengths.
The second outing of the season for Cadoudal’s bay/brown gelding has been set as the King George Chase VI by the connections. For Long Run, participation in the race will not be the first time as he ended an honourable second in the 2011 edition of the race that was won by, Kauto Star, as he led by 1 ¼ lengths.
The trainer shared:
"He has come back fine. Ruby Walsh got a good lead on Silviniaco Conti and at least we haven't had a great battle, like we had with Kauto Star last year."
The most surprising entry out of the trio was, Riverside Theatre, for whom the target can turn out to be a long shot.
He was the favourite victor of the Grade 1 Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham race course over two miles and five furlongs on 15th March.
"Riverside Theatre is very good, and the plan was not to run before Kempton," said Henderson.
"I wanted to take him for a racecourse gallop at Newbury on Sunday but that's not going to happen, and I might take him to Kempton early next week."
The threesome attack of Nicky Henderson trained ends at Tiraaz’s nine-year-old bay gelding, Finian’s Rainbow.
He ended fourth in the Grade 2 Amlin 1965 Chase on 24th November, 2012 at Ascot race course over two miles and three furlongs. The race was captured by, Captain Chris, under training, Philip Hobbs.
The upcoming target will allow Michael Buckley owned to start afresh and impress the connections.
Henderson said: “We looked at his scope and his blood but it hasn't shown anything. Barry (Geraghty) is adamant it was just the ground and he has come back fresh.”
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