Willie Mullins yesterday punctured any lingering hopes the Kempton Park executive held of luring Florida Pearl across to England for the King George VI Chase. But the veteran Dorans Pride may travel.
Trainer Michael Hourigan and owner Tom Doran have yet to make a final decision on whether Dorans Pride goes to Kempton or bids for another Ericsson success at Leopardstown, but Hourigan said yesterday: "The King George option is not being ruled out at the moment. He has been entered for that and the Ericsson and he will run in one or the other."
With the Gold Cup winner See More Business the universal favourite, Florida Pearl has received a 2 to 1 quote from William Hill, who put Imperial Call on 20 to 1. Dorans Pride has been made an 8 to 1 third favourite by Corals.
Mullins dismissed the Florida Pearl quote as "total speculation" and repeated an earlier declaration that his stable star would bypass the Ericsson in favour of the King George "only if Leopardstown burns down"!
"Both myself and the owner have spoken and we are happy to go for the Ericsson. The horse is doing some nice exercise and we will step things up as we get closer to Christmas," Mullins added.
Imperial Call, third in the Kempton feature last year, was not completely ruled out of another crack at it by Raymond Hurley, but he added: "We made the entry to keep our options open in case things froze over here. The horse is in very good form and will probably go for the Ericsson."
One horse that looks increasingly like missing Christmas altogether is Alexander Banquet, who could make a January trip to Cheltenham before his ultimate aim, the SunAlliance Chase.
With a possible tilt at the Paddy Power Chase ruled out by the allocation of 11st 11lb by the handicapper, Alexander Banquet could miss a Christmas engagement in favour of a break.
"The PJ Moriarty on Hennessy day and then the SunAlliance would be a logical plan but we haven't ruled out taking him to Cheltenham for a look at the fences in January," Willie Mullins said.
