FERDY MURPHY continues on the road he hopes leads to Cheltenham with the exciting Kalahari King in the Taag Steelwork 30th Anniversary Novices’ Chase at Haydock Park this afternoon.
The Yorkshire-based handler has put great faith in the seven-year-old’s ability and he lived up to his stable star billing when fourth to Captain Cee Bee in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle in March.
Kalahari King then took the Aon Hurdle at Punchestown before Murphy turned his attentions to chasing this season.
In two starts at Kelso and Leicester Kalahari King is unbeaten. Murphy expects his charge to have a real chance of being in the shake-up for the Arkle Trophy at the Cheltenham Festival, for which he is a best-priced 10-1 second favourite with Ladbrokes, William Hill, Coral, BlueSquare and Boylesports. The West Witton handler said: “We need to get runs into the novices now as we vaccinate them all in January and give them a week to 10 days off so we want to get as many of them out as we can.
“We’ll see how it goes with him. I’d like to get another run into him around February if the ground isn’t too soft – somewhere like Doncaster on goodish ground would be ideal.
“We’ll see what’s there and what’s in the (programme) book, sometimes the book is not that kind to you. It is usually good ground at Doncaster and Tidal Bay ran there in February last year so it would be ideal if we could get him in there.”
Elsewhere on the seven-race Haydock card, Donald McCain junior looks to have a decent chance of recording back-to-back victories in the Sodexho Prestige Tommy Whittle Chase with Idle Talk. McCain landed the three-mile contest last year with the Trevor Hemmings-owned Cloudy Lane, who beat subsequent John Smith’s Grand National winner Comply Or Die in the process.
Idle Talk himself is again being aimed at the Grand National, after he finished a creditable 14th last April.
Also owned by Hemmings, the nine-year-old returned to action when an unlucky second at Carlisle and was fourth at Aintree behind Black Apalachi in the totesport.com Becher Chase in very testing conditions over the National fences last month. It will be soft again this afternoon, but the three-mile trip should be ideal and Idle Talk can finally get his head in front for McCain.
Meanwhile, at Ascot today Nicky Henderson has big chances of another victory in the Ladbroke Hurdle.
Tony McCoy will ride the JP McManus-owned Aigle D’Or, who is 6-1 favourite with the sponsors, and was an excellent head back in second to Numide in the Greatwood Hurdle at Cheltenham. He takes on his conqueror on 2lb better terms.
Henderson also has Sentry Duty, who won over course and distance early last month, and is an 11-1 chance.
Henderson, who won the race last year with Jack The Giant, said: “This race has always been the objective for Sentry Duty since he won at Ascot last time, as it looked the obvious place to come. I’d just hoped the ground was okay. It is decent in the straight but it could be soft enough in Swinley Bottom. He needs it reasonably good.
“It’s very competitive but Aigle D’Or ran a wonderful race at Cheltenham. He gets a bit of weight back from the horse who beat him that day and hopefully that brings them even closer together.”
HAYDOCK PREDICTIONS:
12.10pm Ockey De Neulliac
12.50pm Cloudy Times
1.25pm Prosecco
2pm Kalahari King
2.35pm Tazbar
3.10pm Idle Talk (NAP)
3.40pm Almaydan
TOMORROW’S NAP: Rosie All Over (2.25pm Carlisle)
