Prince Heading To Newbury

Supreme Prince will attempt to improve his owners' disappointing season by landing a second victory in Saturday's vc casino.com Gold Cup at Newbury.

David and Karola Vann's top hurdler Noble Request was ruled out for the rest of the season after sustaining an injury recently and the pair have had a relatively quiet campaign by their standards.

But Supreme Prince, trained by Philip Hobbs, landed this valuable race in 2005 and made his first appearance of the season two weeks ago when ninth in a competitive hurdle at Ascot.

'It's only his second run, because there is nowhere else to send him,' said David Vann.

'Obviously Philip has had this coughing problem with the yard and one or two of mine have been affected but they seem to be over it.

'I actually thought he ran rather well the other day, as he's never jumped well over hurdles and hopefully will do better on Saturday.

'He's won me a Gold Cup ? not the Gold Cup unfortunately. He was going to be retired last season before he won easily at Ayr so we gave him another season. He is 10 now, but we're quite hopeful.'

Lord Henry is a Vann possibility for the Vincent O'Brien County Hurdle at Cheltenham, but Noble Request is to be saved for next term.

'Noble Request has a stress fracture and needs three months off. It came just at the right time really, before Cheltenham and Aintree!' Vann added.

(C) PA Sport