Stuart Edmunds has warned he is almost certain to sidestep a shot at the Finale Juvenile Hurdle at Chepstow with Wolf Of Windlesham due to the likelihood of testing conditions.
Stuart Edmunds has warned he is almost certain to sidestep a shot at the Finale Juvenile Hurdle at Chepstow with Wolf Of Windlesham due to the likelihood of testing conditions.
While either the Summit Hurdle at Doncaster or the JCB Triumph Hurdle Trial at Cheltenham on December 12 will be next on the agenda for the three-year-old, the Newport Pagnell handler believes a trip to Chepstow to contest the Grade One prize on December 27 is unlikely.
Although only rated 60 on the Flat, the son of Mastercraftsman has looked a transformed character over hurdles, following up his debut victory at Ludlow with a win in the Grade Two JCB Triumph Hurdle trial at Cheltenham's Open Meeting earlier this month.
Edmunds said: "He seems very well and has come out of his race at Cheltenham well. He will either head back there or to Doncaster on the same day.
"He has got a penalty now which will make life difficult. The one race he gets in without a penalty is at Chepstow, but the ground at Christmas time there gets very soft and I don't want to run him on that."
Looking further ahead, a trip north of the border could be in store for the Scottish Triumph Hurdle at Musselburgh in February.
Edmunds said: "Although he still needs to improve his jumping a bit, he seems to like it. It just seems to have clicked for him.
"I would not want to go anywhere where the ground is too soft, so we will probably go to Musselburgh for the Scottish Triumph Hurdle as the ground is normally quite nice there, or the Adonis at Kempton.
"If necessary we could always give him a spin on the Flat as he could look quite nicely handicapped now."
A switch to chasing is set be in store for Listed hurdle winner Cloonacool after he turned in a below-par effort when sent off favourite for a warm handicap at Ascot last Friday.
Edmunds said: "Cloonacool was disappointing at Ascot the other day. He will go novice chasing now, we will start him as low as we can go to try to avoid the big boys, but that might be quite difficult.
"Quite where we go I've not decided yet, but he will be out somewhere in the next three to four weeks."