Wakea in winning action at Clonmel© Photo Healy Racing
Wakea is set for a short holiday with trainer Karl Thornton plotting a tilt the Coral Cup at Cheltenham in March.
The six-year-old ran a cracker to finish third to Lil Rockerfeller in the Grade Two Coral Hurdle at Ascot when sent to post a 50-1 shot.
Thornton's stable star has been mixing it in good company lately, having also been fourth behind Melon on his previous outing at Down Royal.
Similar to last year, the Cape Cross gelding will not run on winter ground and connections will instead freshen him up for a spring campaign.
"He's going to have a small break and we'll probably just go straight to Cheltenham with him for the Coral Cup," said Thornton. "He wants nice ground and we might as well give him a break now.
"The ground was probably as dead as he wanted in Ascot as it was raced on the day before, it was a bit churned up.
"You'd imagine with him being so big he'd that he would go with a bit of juice, but he's by Cape Cross and he's a proper Flat horse. He's a real top of the ground horse.
"He might have a prep run in Leopardstown in the middle of February, but he's a horse that you can get ready without a run.
"Leopardstown would probably be the only place you'd get the ground for him as it doesn't go deep, but if he didn't get a run it wouldn't matter. We didn't run him last year from November until Cheltenham.
"Hopefully we get a dry spring ahead of Cheltenham, but once it's genuine good ground he's fine on that. At this time of year when it's soft and gets gluey you'd be kicking yourself after Christmas if you didn't give him a break."
He added: "We'll give him a holiday for three or four weeks and then kick on again with him.
"I was thinking about going to Musselburgh at Christmas with him, but if he won or ran well it might cost you a good pot.
"He seems to be improving all the time and if we get a clear run with him I think he should be very competitive off his mark."
