Hill Cheltenham Run Unlikely

Hobbs Hill, one of the leading novice chasers seen out this season to date, is unlikely to run at the Cheltenham Festival.

Trainer Charlie Egerton has entered the nine-year-old in the Royal & SunAlliance Chase but believes the three-mile novice championship will be stretching his stamina to the limit.

'Hobbs Hill is in the SunAlliance and the Ryanair, but is very unlikely to go to Cheltenham,' said Egerton.

'I've made the entry because it is always important to have options, but he is a two-and-a-half-mile horse and there is no suitable race for a novice at that distance at Cheltenham.

'If the bookmakers see him in the SunAlliance they will automatically put him in the betting, and I believe it is our responsibility as trainers to make the public aware of our plans.

'I don't want people to waste their money backing him when he is a 20-1 chance to run,' he told the Racing Post.

'At the moment he is being targeted at the Scilly Isles Novices' Chase at Sandown next month, but plans are fluid from there.'

(C) PA Sport