NOTRE PERE will use the Irish Hennessy at Leopardstown to try and book his ticket for the Cheltenham Gold Cup – although the John Smith’s Grand National could also be on the agenda.
The nine-year-old looked a viable challenger to Kauto Star and Denman when he landed last season’s Punchestown Guinness Gold Cup in April.
But so far this season things haven’t gone to plan.
He fell on his seasonal debut at Down Royal and also hit the deck when taking on Kauto Star in the Betfair Chase at Haydock in November.
Over Christmas he looked to be getting back to something like his best when fourth in the Lexus Chase. Now the Leopardstown feature – in which he finished second last year – over the same course and distance as the Lexus on February 7 holds the key to whether he heads to the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Although his Irish trainer will also put Notre Pere in the Aintree showpiece when the initial entries are revealed later this month.
Notre Pere is 40-1 with William Hill, Coral, Victor Chandler and Sporting odds for the Cheltenham feature and is generally a 33-1 chance for the National with most firms.
Trainer Dreaper said: “He seems fine at the moment, although he hasn’t done too much since he ran.
“His performance was a lot more encouraging after what happened at Haydock, although he was still well beaten on the day. All being well, he’ll now go for the Irish Hennessy and hopefully he might improve a bit as he might just have needed it the last day.
“Hopefully the Hennessy will tell us whether it is worth going to Cheltenham or not as there probably isn’t much point going for the Gold Cup if his run in the Lexus is as good as he is. He’ll have an entry in the National at Aintree and that is certainly a possible at the moment.”
Another eyeing a retrieval mission in the Irish Hennessy is Willie Mullins’ Cooldine.
Last year’s RSA Chase winner was pulled up in the Lexus Chase on his seasonal reappearance. But Mullins said: “He pulled too hard, and got very tired in the last half a mile, but he was inclined to do that on his first run back.
“We’ve a lot of ground to make up, but he’s still a good horse and I imagine we’ll now go to the Hennessy at Leopardstown.”
Meanwhile, Keith Reveley will give Tazbar one more run before heading to the RSA Chase at Cheltenham. The former smart staying hurdler scored his second success from three starts over fences when winning at Huntingdon on Saturday, despite running over a trip short of his best and on unsuitably soft ground.
Tazbar was second to the exciting French import Long Run in the Feltham Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day.
Reveley said yesterday: “He coped very well. He just got a little bump early on and he just lost a bit of rhythm on the first circuit.
“Two good jumps down the back put the race to bed and it was a nice performance. We’re very pleased and he’s come back fine.
“We’ll just carry on. I want to get plenty of experience into him as a novice. I’ll see how he is and when he’s bouncing he’ll run again.
“He needed it. The Kempton run was very good. When you are running in the top-class races you have got to get experience and hopefully we’ll have the chance to get a little more into him before the Festival.
“He’ll definitely have one more run before then. We’ll see how things go and what the weather’s doing.”
Tazbar is a best-priced 28-1 with Sportingbet for the RSA Chase at the Cheltenham Festival in March.
TODAY’S NAP: Not For Diamonds (4pm Fakenham).
