Chris Gordon isn’t afraid to head straight to Cheltenham with star performer Bass Hunter if the Newbury ground doesn’t allow a pre-Festival tune-up next weekend.
After missing a planned outing at Windsor with his Ascot Listed winner, which is all the rage for the Champion Bumper, the Morestead handler had the William Hill Racing Bet Builder Beacons entered for Bass Hunter’s final tune-up before the spring.
But as he prepares the best team he’s ever assembled for the festival, Gordon is keen to avoid the proving ground with the shining light in his blossoming string.
Gordon said: “He is in good condition but I just don’t want to run on bad ground and he is a big horse with a big future.
“If Newbury isn’t quite right, I think we’ll go straight to Cheltenham with him. I just don’t want him to be dragged around in bad ground so close to Cheltenham.”
“It would be nice to go to Newbury on decent ground and he is in good condition, but he does need protection because he is so good.”
Bass Hunter will be joined by a host of stablemates on the National Hunt showpiece as the handler has made a conscious effort to focus on the four main days of Prestbury Park in March this season.
Among those entered for festival action is Electric Mason, who finished second to Cleeve Hurdle hero Ma Shantou at Cheltenham in October before winning a valuable prize at Haydock on his next start.
Recent Newbury winner Andashan, who finished second to Dan Skelton’s Relkeel winner Kabral Du Mathan on his penultimate outing, is also on the team list alongside Grand Annual-bound David’s Well, unbeaten in two starts this season, including in the Cotswolds in December.
“This will certainly be the nicest team I have sent to Cheltenham,” Gordon continued.
“I thought we’d focus on it a bit more this season, especially with these handicappers. It’s something I haven’t really focused on in the past, but this year I’m up for a crack.
“Electric Mason goes straight to the Pertemps and Andashan is progressive this season and goes to the Martin Pipe.
“He was the third first at Newbury before finishing second to the smart Dan Skelton horse at Haydock on the day when we had three winners and he was the one to come second. Then he went and won nicely the last time at Newbury.”
He continued: “We also have David’s Well who is in really good condition and after he won at Cheltenham we thought we could put him away and go straight to the Grand Annual. He’s a really nice horse and the pace of the race will suit him.”
“Harry Cobden said he would have won more comfortably if they had galloped better last time and it is exciting to be going to the festival with him.”
Grade two winning novice hurdler Diamond Hunter looks an unlikely candidate for Cheltenham as he continues to be plagued by the setback that kept him out of Aintree’s Formby Novices’ Hurdle on Boxing Day and a trip to Haydock for the Rossington Main earlier this month.
“It’s just a real pain that continues and I’m sure we’ll see it again at some point this season,” Gordon added.
“It’ll probably be more Aintree than anything though and he’s a great hunter for next season so we’ll want him dead just before we go again.
“He had an infection in his foot and it was just boring to get it right again.”
Gordon also revealed that the Annual Invictus stalwart has retired after sustaining an injury during an eye-catching fourth-place finish in cross-country action on the Cheltenham Festival Trials day.
He added: “He had a broken pedal bone after the race – he had a pretty hard jump on one of the jumps but then galloped all the way to the line.
“Unfortunately we have had to retire him and we were keen to return to the festival with him, but he has been a great servant to us and we will find him a decent home.”
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