Bowen eyes more success with Souffleur

Jan 12 2008 by Chris Wright, Liverpool Daily Post

PETER BOWEN is hopeful his Souffleur can redress the one blip on his season today in the Ballymore Properties Leamington Novices’ Hurdle at Warwick.

The five-year-old is aiming for his fifth win out of his last six outings over timber in this afternoon’s 2m5f Grade Two contest.

Souffleur was a superb winner last time at the top level when he sauntered to a six-length success in the Grade One Challow Hurdle at Newbury last month.

But his one defeat came at the hands of one of today’s rivals, the Alan King-trained Nenuphar Collonges at Cheltenham, when he finished a disappointing third, although his trainer blamed a pedestrian gallop.

Having put that firmly behind him last time, Bowen expects a different outcome when the pair clash again.

The Welsh handler said: “Souffleur’s in real good form and he’s taking his racing really well.

“I think you can write that run off but he ran a good race anyway. He was still around 15 lengths off the leader turning in so he just had no chance.

“He did it really well in the Challow at Newbury last time and most of the previous winners are off the same weights here.”

Bowen is already targeting the Cheltenham Festival for Souffleur where he will be entered in a number of contests. But the most likely race he will go for is the Ballymore Properties Novices’ Hurdle, for which he is 12-1 with William Hill, Coral, totesport, Paddy Power and Boylesports.

Bowen added: “He’ll probably go for the two-mile-five race at Cheltenham (the Ballymore) but he’ll get an entry in all three novice races from two miles to three-miles-one.

“He’ll also be in the World Hurdle and we’ll see what happens after tomorrow as I might just be tempted to run him in the Cleeve Hurdle (on January 26) if he went and won well.

“If I ran him in that it would be it until the Festival, and it might just show us where we would be with those World Hurdle horses.”

In opposition Keith Goldsworthy is hopeful his progressive Hills Of Aran can continue on an upward curve. The six-year-old lowered the colours of the returning Gold Cup hopeful Star De Mohaison in a competitive handicap hurdle at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day.

Goldsworthy said: “We had the choice of the Lanzarote or the Leamington but decided on this and AP (McCoy) will take the ride. He was third in the race last year. There are a lot of nice horses in the race on paper but it looks a bit less of a task than the Kempton race.

“It won’t be easy but he would have been giving weight away all round in the Lanzarote. We’ve opted for the stiffer track at Warwick.

“He was put up 10lb for his Cheltenham win. I was hoping for a bit less but it’s not too bad to be honest.

“He’s not flashy at home, he puts his head down and you can put him up the gallop as much as you want.

“He doesn’t save anything – he relishes a challenge – and he’s very consistent.”