Alary makes up for lost time in race to Gold Cup

Definitly Red (right) ridden by Richard Johnson goes onto win The Albert Bartlett Novices Hurdle Race ahead of Fletchers Flyer ridden by Noel Fehily in second during the Betfred Grand National Trial day at Haydock Park racecourse.

Now with Colin Tizzard, he will run in the Alan and Ann Potts colours and was last seen finishing a narrow second in a Grade One at Auteuil.

Despite having never jumped a British fence in public, he is as low as 16-1 for the Cheltenham Gold Cup, though he also has an entry in the Ryanair Chase at the Festival in March.

Tizzard said: “He’s got an awfully high handicap mark, but you’ve got to start somewhere and this is a good place to start.

“We just want to get to know him, really.”

Alary would be unlikely to have it all his own way in the Peter Marsh Chase if Brian Ellison’s Definitly Red turns up.

A very easy winner of the Rowland Meyrick at Wetherby  on Boxing Day, he also has the option of the Sky Bet Great Yorkshire Chase at Doncaster a week later.

“The ground will come into it and we’ll just see who goes where,” said Ellison.

“He’s rated 149 now and he’d be entitled to go for something like the Cotswold Chase or the Denman but there’s more money in the handicaps.

“If he wins at Haydock or Doncaster, then he might go for a race like that.

“He does go in soft and heavy ground but he’s better when it’s not so soft.

“At Newcastle in the Rehearsal, Brian (Hughes) kept him wide looking for the best ground and he only lost by four lengths, and he must have given more than that away.

“He had form with all the best novices last year – Black Hercules (JLT winner) and Blaklion (RSA winner) – so he was entitled to do what he did at Wetherby.

“I tend to share my rides out between Brian, Danny Cook and Henry Brooke but you can’t always get the first two so Henry will continue to ride him now. I don’t want to be swapping all the time.

“His work has been exceptional this season and he’s taking his racing much better.”

Bristol De Mai, Bishops Road, Beg To Differ, Firebird Flyer, Otago Trail, O Maonlai and Virak are others in the race.

Meanwhile, Empire Of Dirt will be tested at the highest level in the Irish Gold Cup at Leopardstown on February 12.

A winner at the Cheltenham Festival for the now retired Colm Murphy last March, he has only run once for new trainer Gordon Elliott.

He was also successful then, in the valuable Troytown Handicap Chase at Navan, and is now set to step up in class.

“We’ll enter Empire Of Dirt in the Irish Gold Cup, the entries close soon for that,” said Elliott.

“So he’ll be entered in that, he’s obviously entered in the Gold Cup but we’ll see what weight he gets in the English National. I’d like to fire as many at that as I can.

“He’ll be entered in the Irish National as well.

“There’s three weeks between Cheltenham and Aintree this year but we’ll see how he gets on in the Gold Cup at Leopardstown and go from there.”

Despite current champion Don Cossack being retired, Elliott still has Outlander and Don Poli in the Cheltenham picture.

“Outlander will go straight to Cheltenham. He’ll be entered at Leopardstown, but we’ll have Don Poli for that and Empire Of Dirt,” he said. “Outlander has had four runs already so we’ll freshen him up and just go for the Gold Cup.”

One horse Elliott inherited from Willie Mullins who has not been out yet is the promising Blow By Blow.

He beat Elliott’s Death Duty at Fairyhouse and also beat Moon Racer at the Punchestown Festival.

“I’d say he’s a very good horse but he had a little setback and he’s just back cantering now actually,” said Elliott.

“I don’t know if I’ll run him over hurdles this year, I might leave him and go back for one of the championship bumpers, either that or a graded hurdle. He certainly won’t be running in a maiden hurdle at this time of year. He beat Death Duty. I was disappointed at the time and thought the bubble had burst, but it just shows how good a horse he is that he beat Death Duty. He’ll be a big three-mile chaser.”

Willie Mullins remains hopeful that Faugheen will make his eagerly-awaited return to action at Leopardstown later this month.The nine-year-old has been sidelined through injury since winning the BHP Irish Champion Hurdle 12 months ago, but the signs are he could be ready to defend that crown on January 29.