News Tea For Two targeting Grade One double in Scilly Isles date

Tea For Two targeting Grade One double in Scilly Isles date

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Tea For Two aims to land his second Grade One in a row for Lizzie Kelly in the Betfred TV Scilly Isles Novices' Chase at Sandown on Saturday.

Kelly created history at Kempton over Christmas when riding the Nick Williams-trained seven-year-old to victory in the Kauto Star Novices' Chase, becoming the first lady rider to win a Grade One over jumps in Britain.

Jumping with aplomb on just his second start over fences, he looked to have been doing it all his life as Kelly kept him out of trouble on the outside before bringing him with a smooth run to catch Southfield Royale in the straight.

While big races through the season are stepping stones to Cheltenham for many, that is not the case for Tea For Two, who needs to go right-handed so will be swerving the March meeting.

"He's all set and he's been absolutely fine since Christmas. We're very happy with him," said Williams.

"The ground will be no problem for him and we'll take on all-comers and see what happens.

"Cheltenham wouldn't be his cup of tea - excuse the pun - which is why we haven't entered him there.

"He is in the race at Kempton (BetBright Chase) at the end of the month and there's a novice chase on the same day (Pendil), so one of those might be more likely, but we'll get over this weekend first.

"Punchestown would look more obvious than Aintree in the spring. He's not the best of travellers, but he might get better.

"Punchestown is quite late in the season, but the three-mile novice there would be quite interesting."

Tea For Two's main market rival is Nigel Twiston-Davies' Bristol De Mai, who was brilliant at Haydock when strolling to victory in a Grade Two.

Having started out as an Arkle candidate, defeats to Ar Mad and Garde La Victoire saw him step up in trip and he now seems set to be aimed at the JLT at Cheltenham, although he also has an entry in the RSA Chase over three miles.

"He's in great form and we're looking forward to it," Twiston-Davies told At The Races.

"He was good at Haydock, he came out of that in good form so we're all happy.

"Tea For Two has done absolutely nothing wrong, but his last win was over three miles on good to soft ground, this is two and a half in soft ground and I'd say we are more tried and tested at that distance. We don't know how good either of them are yet.

"We'll see how we get on, but I think the JLT is the idea. He's only five, but he jumps superbly."

Ubak has returned to action this season after missing the previous two campaigns and while his ability remains intact, he has not enjoyed much luck.

Gary Moore's charge ran respectably at Newbury first time out behind Three Musketeers when he made a mistake at the wrong time and then he looked set to score at Huntingdon when he unseated Joshua Moore at the last.

"He probably wants better ground than he is going to get, but we are in a difficult situation. I wanted to run him at Cheltenham on Saturday in the race King's Odyssey won, but he needed to have run three times in order to get into that," said Moore.

"He looked like he might win at Huntingdon, but we won't know. He just made an error and got rid of Josh. Running in the Scilly Isles, though, will be much more difficult and he will have his work cut out.

"We think he is a good horse and he schooled very well earlier in the week. The owners are keen to go to Cheltenham with him for the JLT."