Newbury next for Champion Ustedes

Feb 4 2008 by Chris Wright, Liverpool Daily Post

VOY POR USTEDES is set to take his chance in Saturday’s totepool Game Spirit Chase at Newbury providing the ground is not too testing.

Alan King’s seven-year-old won the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham last year and is on course to defend his title. But he was usurped at the head of the betting for this season’s renewal of the two-mile Festival feature after he was comfortably beaten by Paul Nicholls’s Twist Magic in the Tingle Creek in December.

Voy Por Ustedes is 11-4 with BetFred and Boylesports, while Twist Magic is now 5-2 with Coral, having been a lot shorter prior to his defeat in the Victor Chandler at Ascot last month.

Connections are hopeful thatVoy Por Ustedes’s liking for Cheltenham, where he has won at the Festival for the past two season, will help him turn the tables on his main rival and become the first horse to win back-to-back Queen Mother Champion Chases sincesViking Flagship in 1994-95.

Barry Simpson, racing manager to owner Sir Robert Ogden, said: “He’s on target for Newbury and we would like it to be a dry week.

“He is a buzzy type as everyone knows. Alan (King) prepares him for his races and he peaks at the right time and he is ready to run next week, that would be irrespective of the ground unless it was absolutely bottomless.

“He does cope with it soft, he is just not at his best on it.

“He is ready to run though and the danger with him is that he can boil over if we didn’t get a run in to him. If he doesn’t run next week there is no other opportunity for him so he would have to have a racecourse gallop to get the freshness out of him.

“The two Tingle Creeks he has run in have been almost the same and while I am not saying that he doesn’t act around Sandown, I think he is a better horse at Cheltenham.

“Twist Magic beat us fair and square but whether he had finished first or last, like with all our horses, it doesn’t change the plan. Voy Por is the champion and we are there to be shot at but it is a long time since a horse defended their crown in the Queen Mother.

“One thing about him though, if you take away the blip at Newbury last year when he unseated, he is either first or second, he is very consistent.

“He is a proven performer particularly at Cheltenham, and that is a big plus.”

Meanwhile Howard Johnson believed Astarador’s win at Musselburgh yesterday was his “greatest training performance”.

The County Durham trainer teamed up with jockey Richard Johnson to record a 126½-1 treble at the Scottish track.

Johnson scored with Act Sirius and Jack The Blaster earlier on the card, but it was Astarador’s victory in the £30,000 John Smith’s Scottish County Hurdle that gave him most satisfaction.

The horse was back after suffering a back injury at Haydock last year. And Johnson said: “I reckon that is my greatest training performance.

“This horse smashed a bone in a fetlock joint at Haydock when second to Amaretto Rose in January 2007 and they were going to put him down, but I would not let them. Fortunately the horse has two very good owners in Stan Rutter and Trevor Anderson and they agreed and said to give him all the time he needed.

“He was taken to Leahurst Veterinary Hospital on the Wirral and the vet there did a fantastic job. I thought they would pin him but she said she would take the bone out and it is marvellous that he has come back.

“He was in his box all summer and was given the time and he has made a marvellous recovery – Richard said he may be the type of horse for the Coral Cup at the Cheltenham Festival.”

TODAY’S NAP: Egyptian Lord (4.20pm Southwell).