Jefferson Mulls Roman Attack

Malcolm Jefferson will assess the opposition before deciding which race to run Roman Ark in at his beloved Haydock this weekend.

The 10-year-old landed his fourth success at the track back in November and has the option of stepping up to three miles over fences or reverting to the minimum trip over timber.

'Roman Ark will go to Haydock for either the Peter Marsh Chase or the Bonusprint.com Champion Hurdle Trial. I'm going to have a look at the entries before making a final decision as to which race he goes for,' said Jefferson.

'He loves Haydock and he relishes heavy ground, so I'm just going to see what the opposition is like before committing.

'I'm considering the Peter Marsh but the distance would worry me a little bit. If it was heavy ground, then the jockeys would not go flat out anyway over three miles, but I'm just going to see.

'His mother won over three and a quarter miles but two, or two and a half miles on really heavy going seems to suit him best because he goes on that ground.

'He might yet run in the Champion Hurdle Trial because two miles around there, if the ground is heavy, would be no problem to him. He's a very decent horse around Haydock and he's in great form.'

Whichever contest Roman Ark tackles, he will need to bounce back from a disappointing show in the Boylesports.com Gold Cup won by Tamarinbleu.

'I don't know what went wrong last time. It was a funny race and a few horses, including the favourite, ran no race,' Jefferson added.

'We thought maybe we disappointed Roman Ark because we dropped him out a bit more than we should have done.'

(C) PA Sport