Mullins has options for Sometime
See You Sometime could bypass a run at the Cheltenham Festival, despite recording the biggest success of his career in the HBLB Cotswold Chase at Wincanton on Friday.
In a contest which shed no light on the Gold Cup picture, the Seamus Mullins-trained gelding got the better of a protracted duel with 6-4 joint-favourite Royal Auclair after One Knight, the other market leader, had unshipped Richard Johnson at the second.
See You Sometime (18-1) – the only horse in the race without an engagement in the blue riband – and Andrew Thornton were going the better all the way up the straight, eventually scoring by a length and a quarter, with Ballycassidy and Ollie Magern beaten a distance.
For Mullins, the victory provided a welcome rise out of the doldrums for his Amesbury stable, but he warned: “He will be entered for the Ryanair Chase over two miles and five furlongs, but he could just as easily wait for Aintree or Punchestown.
“He’s a small horse and doesn’t like being taken on in handicaps. The key to him is to run him in small fields like this. I’m proud of the way he did it. That’s a great way to get me out of the cold spot.”
Thornton, who was completing a double after his success on Hollywood in the opener for which he picked up a two-day careless riding ban, was equally praiseworthy.
He said: “He did it on merit today. He galloped, stayed and jumped and he was idling in front.”
Paul Nicholls, who created racing history at the last meeting by sending out six winners, made up for the disappointment of Royal Auclair with a short-priced treble courtesy of Gungadu, Cerium and Kicks For Free.
And the trainer can look forward with relish to sending his bumper winner Kicks For Free for the championship event at Cheltenham, for which Coral cut the gelding to 6-1.
The five-year-old had impressed on his debut in a similar event there a month previously and this effort was every bit as good as rider Liam Heard arrived with his hands full and barely let out an inch of reign as the five-year-old eased to a length success over Stripe Me Blue.
Nicholls said: “I ran Cornish Rebel in it (Champion Bumper), but he didn’t have the pace of this fellow, although I wouldn’t discount Pepporoni Pete, who runs at Newbury next weekend and is not far behind this one.
“He really hasn’t done a tap today and the idea was to take him to Cheltenham and that will be his lot. He’s some horse to go novice hurdling with next year.”
Cerium staked his claim for the Arkle Trophy, for which he was left at 20-1 by Coral and at 14-1 by William Hill, with a length and a half success over stablemate Hors La Loi III in the Dick Reynolds Novices’ Handicap Chase.
The 10-11 favourite looked set for an easy success early in the straight, but after diving at the third-last fence he idled under Paddy Brennan as the veteran Hors La Loi III stayed on strongly up the run-in.
The Ditcheat handler’s treble was initiated by Gungadu, who made all to beat Hill Forts Timmy by 17 lengths in the HMG Paints “National Hunt” Novices’ Hurdle.
The winner is another embryonic chaser and although entered for the Royal & SunAlliance Hurdle, is more likely to run in the three-mile novice event at the Festival.
Philips Hobbs and Nigel Twiston-Davies received consolation for the disappointments of One Knight and Ollie Magern when respectively landing the Byotrol Handicap Hurdle and the CPM Group Ltd Handicap Chase with Noble Request and Florida Dream.
