Crawford eyeing Cheltenham targets with Saint

Stuart Crawford is eyeing the Cheltenham festival with Saint D'oroux after his victory at Kelso last week.

The Saint des Saints gelding, owned by Simon Munir and Isaac Souede, was formerly trained by Gordon Elliott and made a winning debut for the Larne handler at the Scottish venue.

Saint D'oroux has been third in the valuable Ladbrokes Hurdle at the Dublin Racing festival last season and Crawford is hoping he can mix it again in good company.

He said:- "I thought he was massively overpriced in Kelso. It was a good confidence booster for the horse.

“He had probably been in a lot deeper waters on his last lot of runs for Gordon. It was a nice opportunity for him. Hopefully he has come out of that well.

“With the rating he has, he will probably have to step up into a better class of race again. He will probably have a few entries for Cheltenham handicaps - he could be a Coral Cup horse.

“If we could find another handicap like the one he won, we would probably try and keep his confidence high before we pitched him into the deeper end again."

Crawford is taking his time with dual winner Ballycoose after an unfortunate incident on his last start at Down Royal.

The Mahler gelding sprawled badly at the first then, and was pulled up, having won his first two starts in a bumper at the same venue and in an Ayr maiden hurdle.

"Ballycoose is back working away. We haven't anything else picked out for him at the minute. We have probably erred on the side of caution after Down Royal. He seems fine and we will just find another wee target and have a go at it.

Another Mahler gelding, O'Toole, is two from three in the same Munir and Souede colours and could turn out again at Naas on Saturday.

Having chased home Kilcruit in Grade 1 company at Punchestown last season he made a winning start over hurdles at Down Royal, in an auction contest, on St Stephen's Day and looks an exciting prospect for connections.

"O'Toole has an entry for Saturday in Naas, an auction novice hurdle that is part of that series. He could possibly go down that route for the auction final at Punchestown.

“If he doesn't go there, there's a novice hurdle in Haydock on 19th, a Grade 2, he might go for. More than likely, he will run on Saturday.

“He's been good since Down Royal, he is a very straightforward horse. He eats and does his work and gets on with it. He needs experience without over facing him. It would be nice to pick realistic targets without getting carried away."

(Michael Graham & Gary Carson)