Kingscliff Fine After Marsh Defeat

Robert Alner gave an upbeat bulletin on former Gold Cup favourite Kingscliff after his lacklustre performance in the Peter Marsh Chase at Haydock on Saturday.

The nine-year-old was a nine-length second behind Ebony Light in the three-mile contest after being virtually tailed off following a mistake at the seventh fence.

Kingscliff ran on again for jockey Robert Walford but is now as long as 9-1 with Coral for the blue riband in March.

'He´s fine - he ate up and there is not a mark on him. He´s totally sound and happy,' said Alner.

'We will just try and freshen him up now. The owner is coming down on Wednesday and we will discuss it then, but the sensible thing to do seems to be give him a bit of a break then start working back towards Cheltenham.'

Alner felt the heavy ground at the Merseyside venue played a big part in Kingscliff´s defeat.

'I don´t like to keep making excuses but he just struggled on the ground,' he explained.

'Robert said he hated the sticky ground down the back straight and then when he came back on to good ground turning for home, he got galloping again.'

Kingscliff had previously disappointed in last month´s King George VI Chase at Sandown, tailing off after a bad blunder at the 10th before being pulled up.

Although the Toulon gelding made Walford work hard down the back straight, Alner does not believe Kingscliff is in need of blinkers or any other headgear.

'I don´t think there´s any need. He made a mistake but he jumped every fence home from there,' he explained.

'I know that´s two races he´s made mistakes in but he jumped perfectly well after that on Saturday.

'He just couldn´t bounce off the ground. If you look at the races he won at Ascot, and even Cheltenham, he seemed to enjoy the better ground.'

(C) PA Sport