Voy Por Ustedes takes a step back in trip on Saturday as he lines up in the Game Spirit Chase at Newbury where he will meet Master Minded.
Master Minded missed Tingle Creek
Alan King sent the nine-year-old for the Lexus Chase over three miles at Leopardstown over Christmas but he failed see out the distance when finishing sixth. The two-mile-one-furlong contest was cancelled last year due to the weather but Voy Por Ustedes finished second in 2008 and came a cropper at the fifth fence when well-fancied the previous year.
King said: “He didn’t stay in the Lexus and we’ve known all along that we won’t get his favoured top of the ground until Cheltenham time. In that sense the going is a slight worry for Newbury this Saturday, but with the ground as it is generally at the moment you can’t be too choosy.Depending on how he gets on at Newbury, it will be either the Queen Mother or the Ryanair. The horse is in very good form.”
Voy Por Ustedes won the Queen Mother Champion Chase back in 2007 but he was outclassed by Master Minded the following year and King opted to tackle the Ryanair Chase at the 2009 Festival. He finished a narrow second to Imperial Commander on that occasion and King is hoping the weekend will help decide his target this time around. Just four horses have been entered for the Newbury race at the five-day stage and consequently the contest has been reopened until 11am on Tuesday.
Trainer Paul Nicholls is ‘very confident’ that Master Minded has recovered from his fractured rib enough to allow a tilt at a third Champion Chase at Cheltenham in March, we will see on Saturday!
Paul Nicholls believes the totepool Game Spirit Chase at Newbury on Saturday will do current champion chaser Master Minded “the world of good” after his lay off.
Clive Smith’s seven-year-old suffered his first defeat since Aintree 2008 in the Connaught Chase at Cheltenham in November, after which it was discovered he had been running with a fractured rib.
He has been back in work since early January but the Ditcheat handler has admitted he will improve for the run.
The race has been reopened after only four entries were received, with stablemate Take The Breeze and Voy Por Ustedes confirmed as two of the others.
“I’m not sure if Master Minded has scared them all off but up until about 11.30am there was only him and Voy Por Ustedes, we’ve put one more in and I guess one other has gone in. It’s reopened and I suspect it will be a small but select field,” said Nicholls.
He added of Master Minded: “He hasn’t been back in work all that long from his fractured rib but I’m happy with him. Whatever he does, the run will bring him on enormously.
“I put Take The Breeze in because he has won at Newbury, but he is also in the Kingmaker at Warwick against Long Run so it is an option for him.
“Master Minded will definitely benefit from a run because he’s had plenty of time off and we haven’t been riding him back all that long.
“It will do him good to go out and the race will do him the world of good. He needs to run a lot better than he did at Cheltenham because that form hasn’t worked out at all, he was a long way below his best so it would be good to see him run well and be in good form again.
“Master Minded needs the run more than Denman (Aon Chase) but it’s not critical, we can get them ready at home if the meeting is lost.”
In his absence another Ditcheat inmate has won the Tingle Creek and the Victor Chandler.
“Twist Magic is obviously in good form, he needed to win at Ascot to show he could win away from Sandown and obviously he was very good that day and is in good order,” added Nicholls.
“He’s not had the best of luck at Cheltenham but that always changes, he might have won the Arkle a few years ago if he hadn’t fallen.
“Twist Magic has beaten Kalahari King and Big Zeb but Master Minded has beaten him every time they’ve met so the form is in the book.”
Voy Por Ustedes will take Master Minded on again after failing to see out three miles in the Lexus over Christmas.
“He didn’t stay in the Lexus and we’ve known all along that we won’t get his favoured top of the ground until Cheltenham time,” said trainer Alan King.
“In that sense the going is a slight worry for Newbury this Saturday, but with the ground as it is generally at the moment you can’t be too choosy.
“Depending on how he gets on at Newbury, it will be either the Queen Mother or the Ryanair. The horse is in very good form.”
Despite the small field Nicky Henderson was not tempted to enter Petit Robin and he will head straight to Cheltenham.
“Petit Robin is in good order but I haven’t entered him in the Game Spirit,” said Henderson.
“He’s a very good horse when he’s fresh, I think he showed that at Kempton.
“We were well and truly put in our place at Ascot by Twist Magic. We had a crack at him but it probably wasn’t the right thing to do.
“We learned he is better going left-handed, which is what Barry (Geraghty) and AP (McCoy) have always thought.
“I’ve backed off him intentionally to freshen him up for Cheltenham but he is not prepared in any way to go to Newbury. He’s so good fresh anyway that when I saw it was going to be reopened it barely crossed my mind.”
Another heading straight for the Queen Mother is the veteran Well Chief.
“I haven’t discussed it with David Johnson (owner) as yet, I thought it might be reopened,” said his trainer David Pipe.
“My initial thoughts are that he won’t run and he’ll go straight to Cheltenham but I will talk to DJ and we’ll put him in it if he would like.
“I think he’s a horse that does run well fresh so I’d think the plan would be to go straight to Cheltenham.”
