Coral Cup the long term target for Wakea Karl Thornton has the Coral Cup in mind as a possible long-term target for Wakea after he belied his odds of 50/1 to take third place in the Coral Hurdle at Ascot on Saturday. The six-year-old is to have a winter break after being on the go since July, before being trained for a return trip to Cheltenham, where he ran in the County Hurdle last March. "He's 100 per cent. It didn't take anything out of him. I took him away for the experience and he didn't have a hard race," said Dublin-based Thornton. "The ground was as soft as he would like. He's a real top-of-the ground horse. "I'll probably leave him off until the spring now. I'll see what the handicapper says, but he'll probably go back to Cheltenham (in March) for something. That will probably be his next run. "Ideally, I'd probably think of the Coral Cup. Two and a half miles would be ideal, I'd have thought. "It depends which way the handicapper takes his run on Saturday, whether he takes it at face value or takes into account if he felt the other horses ran below themselves. "This horse is definitely going the right way. The way he came out of the race you'd say he'd improve for it."
