Burning Ambition set to return at Loughanmore Burning Ambition, who was sent off favourite for last season's St. James's Place Foxhunter Challenge Cup at the Cheltenham Festival, is set to return to action at Loughanmore point-to-point in Co Antrim on Saturday. Eighth in the Cheltenham showpiece, the Pierce Power trained seven-year-old has had his wind done since, with the Foxhunters at Aintree his likely long-term target. Speaking on Wednesday afternoon, Power, who trains near the infamous Loftus Hall in the south Co Wexford, said: "The plan is to run him in Loughanmore on Saturday. It's been the plan since he came back in, we had a look at the fixture list and thought it would slot right in. "He worked yesterday and schooled this morning, everything is 100 percent with him. All being well he'll run on Saturday and we'll see where we are with him. "He is getting that little bit older now and is a bit wiser to his work. He'll come on for the run and we've left a bit on him to work with. I think he will do himself justice on Saturday, and we'd be hopeful now that he'll run a big race. "It looks a nice race and there is plenty of nice horses in it, but you'd be hopeful that he'll be able to put it up to them. "After Saturday he might have another run in an Open, and then we will probably look at Hunter Chases, races like Down Royal at Christmas, Thurles, and the race at Punchestown that we were second to Gilgamboa in last season. "All being we'll you'd have to think about the two big ones (Cheltenham and Aintree). Aintree would be at the foremost of our mind. We think the fences and the trip will suit him. "We had planned to go to Aintree last year after Cheltenham. Everything seemed fine and he came out of Cheltenham grand, but then we worked him before Aintree and it turned out that he needed a wind operation. "Hopefully that might explain why he cut out a little bit at Cheltenham. He had his wind done and it seems perfect now. "Cheltenham last season over three and a quarter miles on real dead horrible ground probably did just catch him out. If we thought the ground at Cheltenham was going to be nicer we'd definitely be considering it. "Even in the Gold Cup they were struggling to get home on that ground. It's not usually like that so hopefully it was a once off. "Fingers crossed that he'll stay in one piece now. He gave us some thrill last season, and a bit more of the same will keep us all happy." Power went on to talk about the rest of his string, saying: "We have seventeenth in, some are for pr--training and the rest are to go point-to-pointing. We have another mare to run in Ballinaboola on Sunday and we have a cracking bunch of three-year-old's. "It'll be good when we get them out and see what they are made of. "Rythmandblues is the one on Sunday. She is a nice mare and is owned by Jane O’Connor and was bred by her husband Denis. They are actually a big part of the Wexford Hunt, so it'll be nice for them to have a runner at their local point-to-point. "Hopefully she will run well, she is a nice mare and she goes well. We'd be hopeful of a big run out of her."
