Reverence in great form for double bid

Sep 5 2008 by Chris Wright, Liverpool Daily Post

ERIC ALSTON thinks Reverence is back on form for his bid to become only the second horse to win the Betfred Sprint Cup at Haydock twice.

The seven-year-old took the six-furlong Group One contest in 2006 and is among the maximum 17 entries as he bids to emulate the only dual winner Be Friendly.

Be Friendly’s statue is by the winner’s enclosure at the Merseyside venue in honour of his victories in the first two runnings of Haydock’s showpiece in 1966 and 1967.

Since Reverence won the Sprint Cup, adding to his victory in the Nunthorpe Stakes a week earlier, he has had his problems.

He couldn’t defend his crown 12 months ago due to injury and has not recaptured the same form since.

He did, though, win over course and distance in a conditions event in May, and was a close third to Green Manalishi in the Listed Queensferry Stakes at Chester on his last run.

His Lancashire trainer believes he is in the best form since his win at Haydock two years ago. Reverence is a best-priced 16-1 with Coral, Stan James and BetDirect.

Alston said: “He’s in great order, the best we’ve had him all year, but he’ll need to be.”

Reverence likes soft ground, but Alston is concerned that conditions may be even too deep for him.

Officials at Haydock continue to work tirelessly to make sure tomorrow’s seven-race card gets the go-ahead. The home straight is still covered with plastic sheeting, but with more heavy rain predicted today it could be touch and go.

Alston added: “The weather is dreadful. We’re 25 miles from Haydock and we’ve had horrendous rain. We’ve had terrible weather on Thursday morning. Friday is supposed to be the worst day, I just hope they’ve got the days wrong.

“You don’t know what the ground’s going to be like with it being covered up. He’s drawn high which normally, would be a good draw. You just wouldn’t know, but we’re very hopeful.”

The heavy ground is a concern for Corrybrough, who is an 8-1 third favourite with Ladbrokes behind market leaders Utmost Respect, who will be ridden by Warrington jockey Paul Hanagan, and French raider African Rose.

Corrybrough’s trainer Henry Candy said: “They all have to be worried about the ground as it will be atrocious after the next 36 hours – and that is if it even takes place.

“If it does go ahead, it will be more like a seven-furlong race which wouldn’t suit him, but I’ve no idea how he’d go on the ground.

“If it was a Group Three, I wouldn’t bother running him but as it’s a Group One, we’ll have a go.”

Jeremy Noseda has similar concerns for Strike The Deal.

The Newmarket trainer said: “We have declared him and will keep a close watch on the weather over the next 48 hours. It is not going to be a strongly contested Group One sprint and as he has performed well on soft before, we thought we’d let him take his chance.”

Officials at the track have confirmed it is still raceable at present after a day of showers and some sunshine.

Clerk of the course Kirkland Tellwright reports conditions to be very testing, and said: “The covers appear to be doing their bit and as we are racing on fresh ground in the back straight, the ground was always going to be in a better state there than it is in the home straight.

“Our frost covers are not waterproof so they would not be a lot of good in this situation and the covers we have are actually hired from a company that have a contract with the FA to cover football pitches.

“We took the covers off on Tuesday to mow the grass but they have been on since then and with it being quote warm under there, the grass is growing rapidly.

“The plan now is to leave the covers on as we will not abandon because the grass is too long.

“The rest of the course is obviously heavy and the forecast is not bad today, not good tomorrow and showers on Saturday. We are being realistic and the message is one of cautious optimism.”

TODAY’S NAP: Al Mukaala (6.20pm Kempton).