Hopes High For Celestial

Champion owner David Johnson is looking forward to seeing his Hennessy Gold Cup winner Celestial Gold back on a racecourse in the Letheby & Christopher Chase at Cheltenham today.

The race has been run as the Pillar Properties Chase in recent years and has been won by future Gold Cup winners See More Business and Looks Like Trouble.

With injuries afflicting many of the leading contenders for the blue riband this term, it is likely the weekend´s victor could be propelled into near favouritism for the big one at the Festival.

And Johnson thinks the way his horse has been campaigned this season means he has every chance of walking away with the biggest prize in steeplechasing.

'It will be nice to see him back on a racecourse and we´ve sort of campaigned him in reverse this year,' he said.

'By the time he ran in the Gold Cup last year I think it was a case of going to the well once too often, but this year the Gold Cup has been the aim all along.

'He will come on for whatever he does today but he is OK and it´s a case of fingers crossed.'

After a fantastic early part of the season, Celestial Gold disappointed last March but Johnson says after victories in the Paddy Power Gold Cup as well as the Hennessy, it was possibly too much to ask of him.

'I did expect him to run better in the Gold Cup but it wasn´t to be and we´ll see if he can do a bit better this year,' he said.

'A lot of the fancied horses this year have unfortunately had problems so it is a very open year. But we´ve had the disappointment with Well Chief and these things happen in racing.

'We go there with every chance this year and he is entitled to be one of the favourites.'

Take The Stand finished in front of all bar Kicking King in March and his handler Peter Bowen says that now that his charge has his favoured conditions, a big run can be expected.

'He´s favoured by the conditions of the race today and everything has gone right in his preparation so he should run well,' said Bowen.

'With the weights framed as they are you would hope that he´ll be there or thereabouts.

'He hasn´t had good ground yet this season so it will be nice for him to race on ground that he likes. If everything goes well today that will be it before the Gold Cup. He won´t go for the National this year though, he´ll go for the Martell Cup there instead.'

One horse who could have the Grand National as his target is Ferdy Murphy´s Joes Edge, who is another who has been waiting for better racing ground.

'We´ve been waiting for some decent ground all season with him and that´s the reason he is running,' the Middleham trainer said.

'The ground this season has been absolutely terrible and when you have a good ground horse like this it can be a nightmare because you need them race fit but you don´t want to ruin them.

'He´s giving weight to the Gold Cup runner-up but that´s the way the conditions of the race are set out. At least it shows that he has a good race in the bag.

'It will bring our lad on a good bit today and it will sharpen him up a bit, but it´s like a mini Gold Cup really.

'Tom Dreaper rides him today and he gets on well with him. He won a big race at Aintree on him and even though he can´t claim in the race, he is riding well at the moment and has ridden a couple of winners for us this week.'

Royal Auclair, placed in both the Grand National and Gold Cup last year takes his chance for the in-form Paul Nicholls and the red-hot handler believes he is set to run another big race.

'It looks a competitive race,' Nicholls told Teletext. 'But at his best he is in with a big chance. He likes Cheltenham and I wouldn´t rule him out.'

? PA Sport