Chief swerves totesport Trophy Alan King has ruled Mille Chief out of a crack at the totesport Trophy after the handicapper raised him 13lb for his win at Sandown. The five-year-old has always been held in the highest regard by the Barbury Castle handler, but had not quite delivered on the track until he laughed at his rivals off top weight last Saturday. King suggested he was a better horse at home than his stablemate and Champion Hurdle winner Katchit, and though he had hoped to run him in the valuable Newbury handicap, he has now decided to go down a different route. When asked for his reaction to Mille Chief's new handicap mark of 158, King said: "Well I haven't entered him in the totesport Trophy, put it that way. He'll go for one of the Champion Hurdle trials. "People were saying to me he'd go up eight. I was expecting 10 or 12 the way they are behaving at the minute, but there you go. "I'd don't see there's any point entering him off 158 so rather than muck people around, I'm not even entering him. "I would like to think he'll go to Ffos Las (Welsh Champion Hurdle, February 5), Sandown (Contenders Hurdle, February 5) or the Kingwell (Wincanton, February 19). He'll have his trial in one of those and we'll take it from there."
