Griffin to lower Dingle's sights, but Cheltenham still possible Trainer Eoin Griffin is to regroup with stable star Ol Man Dingle following the gelding’s defeat in the Drinmore Chase at Fairyhouse last Sunday. The Dunglen Racing Syndicate-owned son of Ol’ Man River had completed a hat-trick of hurdle wins last year and scored at Grade 3-level at Cork on November 2. In Sunday’s top-level race, the six-year-old raced prominently and led at the third-last fence but, having been headed by race winner Romeo Coolio, faded to finish a well-beaten fifth. Griffin reports “the ground didn’t suit him but we knew that before the race. He doesn’t like that testing ground and I knew early on that he wasn’t travelling with his usual fluency. “That said, he was never going to beat Romeo Coolio and while he was ridden to try and win the race, it probably cost him being placed. If we had ridden him to be placed we might still be wondering, so we know now that while he is a good horse, he isn’t at that Grade 1 level. “We’ll be backing off him now and aiming him at the spring. We still have the 2m4f novice handicap chase in mind for him at Cheltenham and ideally I’d look to give him one run beforehand. “He didn’t do quite what we had hoped so we were disappointed, but not in the horse. Maybe he’s not a Grade 1 horse but he’ll have his day and there are nice races for him.”
