Knife Edge is made to fight Knife Edge will go to Cheltenham with a victory under his belt, but it was one that had his trainer Michael O`Brien fuming. The JP McManus-owned horse started odds -on for the Newlands Chase at Naas yesterday but only scraped home by half a length from the 16 to 1 outsider Over The Furze.The odds-on shot had disputed the lead from half way under jockey Tom Rudd, and it was that tactic that infuriated O`Brien.He said: 'The horse would beat any of these for toe if dropped in but he (Rudd) goes on and makes it a gallop for all the stayers!' 'I remember in the Triumph Hurdle too, he jumps off, takes a hold and makes the running. This is a horse that likes to run at horses. He needs a lead. It was not the best prep you could get. You can draw no conclusions from that,' he added.Rudd admitted he should not have led so soon but pointed to the extremely testing conditions as a contributory factor. 'The ground is terrible and we went a three-mile pace which meant the horse ran quite free. I shouldn`t have led so soon, but I didn`t want to choke him back either,' the jockey said.Knife Edge remains as short as 8 to 1 for the Queen Mother Champion Chase but an alternative in the Cathcart Cup has not been ruled out by the McManus team.Rudd was not exaggerating about the going. Less than half an hour before the first race, a group of officials, plus jockey Norman Williamson, were returning from walking the track.'No jar!' was Williamson`s succinct report. 'Bottomless,' was Conor O`Dwyer`s view, and for Knife Edge`s race, the three fences after the stands were omitted.That meant a gap of almost a mile between jumps, leaving just seven fences in the Newlands. That is one less then the recommended minimum for the two-mile trip but it was allowed because of the special circumstances.Such considerations made no difference to Colonel Braxton, who booked his SunAlliance Chase ticket with a fluent defeat of Youlneverwalkalone in the Nas Na Riogh Chase.
