Horse racing: Hold Fast for Cheltenham hopes

Cheltenham clues were on offer at Sandown on Saturday, but perhaps not in the most obvious of places. Most eyes would have been on the 32Red (Tolworth) Hurdle in which Prospect Wells was expected to announce himself as Scottish owner Graham Wylie’s major Festival hope.

However, it was Hold Fast who emerged as Wylie’s major Prestbury Park contender with a win in the 32Red Handicap Chase.

Wylie moved a dozen horses to champion trainer Paul Nicholls when Howard Johnson was disqualified, with one of them Hold Fast, who was backed into 7-2 favourite and flew up the Sandown hill under Ruby Walsh to finish seven lengths clear. “It’s a pleasant surprise because, relatively speaking, he’s still a novice and he hasn’t had a lot of racing because he’s had problems with his feet,” said Wylie. “Ruby said he still felt like he was learning and hopefully there’s some more progress to come.”

Unfortunately Prospect Wells could not maintain his good start to the campaign when a well-beaten fourth in the Tolworth, where Nicky Henderson’s Captain Conan stuck to a truer line than Colour Squadron.

Captain Conan, a strapping French-bred who won his most recent start at Auteuil in June, took a huge walk in the market from 7-2 to a starting price of 9-1, and it looked as if the betting would prove veracious as Colour Squadron jumped the last flight still in command. But Richard Johnson was unable to prevent his mount from hanging to the left and was without the aid of a nearby running rail as Barry Geraghty fired Captain Conan into the hurdle and stoked him up the run-in to win by a short head.

“It did seem a funny place to start him off but there was method in it as the owners were over for the weekend and he is a very, very talented horse,” said Henderson. “I imagine it will be hard to persuade them not to run him somewhere in March, but Barry and I think it could be a year too soon. He’ll be in there but I’m not committing him to it [Cheltenham] as he’s really just a chaser.”

Alan King’s Hold On Julio was not foot-perfect over the tricky Sandown fences but the 5-2 favourite and bottom weight had enough latent ability to win the 32Red.com HBLB Handicap Chase in good style. He could now also be on the Festival trail with the JLT Specialty Chase on the opening day a possible target.

Renee Robeson’s Colebrooke (11-2) foiled Henderson’s 11-10 favourite Soliwery in the 32Red Poker Juvenile Hurdle, while Ciceron, who had shaped well in a couple of previous runs, took the 32Red Handicap Hurdle as a well-backed 6-1 shot. Trainer Venetia Williams will point him to the Betfair Hurdle at Newbury.

Henry de Bromhead was on the mark with former Cheltenham Festival winner Berties Dream (6-4 joint-favourite) in the Devil’s Bit Beginners Chase. De Bromhead said: “His next race could be the three-mile novice at Navan in February – the Ten Up Novice Chase.

A potential Festival star came to the fore in Ireland yesterday as Noel Meade’s unbeaten Monksland created a deep impression in the Slaney Novice Hurdle at Naas. Hot favourite Dedigout took over the lead at the top of the straight, but he had no answer when Monksland cruised by and Paul Carberry’s mount was eased after the final flight to score by four and a half lengths.

Meade said: “That went exactly to plan. I thought he’d win. He is good enough for Cheltenham and he will go there for the Neptune.”