Following Old Park Star’s brilliant win at Haydock last Saturday, his stablemate Act Of Innocence will get the chance to make his Cheltenham case on Festival Trials day at Prestbury Park this weekend.
The duo of Gordon and Su Hall joined Nicky Henderson after leaving Paul Nicholls at the end of last season. While Act Of Innocence was initially scheduled for two-mile tasks, Old Park Star was brilliant in winning at Kempton, Cheltenham and Haydock at around that distance and is now a firm favorite for the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in March.
Act Of Innocence won over two miles on his stable debut at Newbury before being touched by Nicholls-trained youngster Minella Yoga last month – and with connections understandably keen to share their aces, he will now head out for Saturday’s Grade Two AIS Novices’ Hurdle.
“Act Of Innocence goes two and a half miles to Cheltenham on Saturday and we’ll see how he gets on there,” said Henderson.
“If he is the stayer and the other is the two-mileer, then the lucky owner has two very nice horses.
“They’re nice horses no matter what, and they’re both for the future. They’ll both be great hunters.”
Old Park Star will not perform again between now and the festival show on March 10, but could be part of the Seven Barrows team that makes its annual pre-Cheltenham trip to Kempton in mid-February.
Henderson added: “He doesn’t need to run again (for Cheltenham) because he puts a lot into it, but he finds it awfully easy,” Henderson added.
“I thought it would do him good to go to Kempton for the canter morning. He’s a very calm horse and not difficult, so he might not even need to do that, but he might like it.”
“He looked fantastic on Sunday morning and he is a handsome horse, a beautiful horse.”
Henderson also recently saw the gray Fire Warning open his account at Newbury and he will be sent out in the coming weeks to gain more experience.
“He will certainly progress further in time and he likes soft ground, so we will let him run again in three to four weeks and we will see,” said the trainer.
#Act #Innocence #ready #trial #day #test #Races