Down Royal Plan For Salmon

Michael Hourigan will 'most likely' give Beef Or Salmon a first jumps outing of the campaign in next Saturday´s James Nicholson Wine Merchant Champion Chase at Down Royal.

The nine-year-old will be looking for back-to-back victories in the Grade One contest, having dished out a three-and-a-half-length beating to Kicking King last year.

It will not be Beef Or Salmon´s seasonal reappearance though, as he was a highly-creditable ninth in last month´s Irish Cesarewitch.

'He seems to be in good form, he has summered well and had a good run on the Flat,' Hourigan told At The Races.

'It was a slowly run race and he got caught a bit flat-footed, but we was staying on quite well at the end.'

Although he was in fine form for the majority of the season and beat Best Mate in the Lexus Chase, Beef Or Salmon was below-par in the Gold Cup and was pulled up before the second-last having run no sort of race.

Hourigan explained: 'Paul Carberry rode him that day and he said he could have pulled him up before the second fence as he thought he was going nowhere.

'All my horses were under a cloud at that time but they seem to be fine and healthy now and that was the only excuse we could come up with. He will most likely run at Down Royal.'

(C) PA Sport