de Bromhead ponders next target for Chris's Dream

Henry de Bromhead will bide his time before making a decision on Chris’s Dream participation at next month’s Cheltenham Festival, now just over a fortnight away.

The Mahler gelding is unbeaten in two starts over fences this season, having won the Ladbrokes Troytown Handicap Chase by almost ten lengths in November and more recently dropping back to 2m 4f to take the Grade 2 Red Mills Chase at Gowran.

He started the season rated 146, and is now rated a 164 performer after his latest front-running defeat of Shattered Love and five other rivals at Gowran. In between his two runs this season, he was taken out of the Irish Gold Cup on the day at Leopardstown because of the drying ground which prevailed on that occasion.

The Mahler eight-year-old is four from six over fences, but perhaps a slight cause for concern is that he has performed poorly in two previous runs in Britain.

His trainer also feels he might not be the type to take too many hard races in a season and, if appearing at the Festival, he will have had less than four weeks to recover from a run on gruelling ground on his most recent start.

“Chris’s Dream is in the Gold Cup and the Ryanair. I’d probably be leaning towards the Gold Cup but it’s whether he’ll run there at all or not”, said the Knockeen handler.

“We’ll play it by ear but he seems in good form.”