Best Mate will not race again this season Henrietta Knight today ruled out a trip to the Punchestown Festival for triple Gold Cup hero Best Mate but did indicate that Irish racing fans can look forward to seeing the star chaser again at the Leopardstown Christmas meeting.The Oxfordshire trainer will not run the nine-year-old again this season but is already starting to plot a campaign for next term. ´He´s very fresh now but if we raced him again without giving him enough time to recover, then he would still be showing the marks from Cheltenham - he´d be flat.´ ´We won´t go to Huntingdon again (where he was beaten by the ill-fated Jair Du Cochet last November), but we need to find something suitable for him at that stage of the season that is over three miles or maybe slightly shorter. I suppose we could go back to Exeter for the Haldon Gold Cup, as although it is only over two and a quarter miles he does like the track. Maybe somebody will help us find a race or put one on for him.´ ´Then probably we would go back to Leopardstown again for the ´Ericsson´ (now sponsored by Lexus) before going back to try for a fourth Gold Cup. I don´t know how bad it will be, trying to win it again. It was bad enough yesterday. I was really feeling the pressure. If I looked ill it was because I felt ill,´ added Ms. Knight. Noel Meade is planning to run Gold Cup-third Harbour Pilot in the Heineken Gold Cup at Punchestown next month.
