RACING: Christy Roche yesterday revealed there will be a dramatic festival switch for Le Coudray to the Cathcart Cup - if ground conditions allow him run.
Le Coudray has been the leading Irish hope for the SunAlliance Chase despite a last fence fall at Leopardtown earlier in the month and is as low as 10 to 1 with some firms for the novice crown.
However, the JP McManus-owned horse is now being targetted instead at the two mile and five furlong Cathcart.
The news came on the back of confirmation that 12mms of water will be poured on both the new and old courses at Cheltenham over the next couple of days after a month of dry and cold weather.
Just 12mms has fallen in the last four weeks and clerk of the course Simon Claisse said: "The one worry has been the amount of rain that we will recieve before the festival. It has been looking like this might not be enough to have the ground on the easy side of good which is always our aim."
The ground at Cheltenham is currently "good" and "good to firm" in places and the forecast is for occasional rain next week with a dry week expected for the festival.
That is the worst possible news for the Roche camp whose small but select festival team also includes the Smurfit Champion Hurdle contender Like-A-Butterfly.
Both she and Le Coudray, who are owned by McManus, prefer to have a cut in the ground and Roche is afraid neither horse will be able to run if the conditions get too fast.
"If it's on the good to firm side then they wouldn't run. Cheltenham is a place where horses come home with a lot of injuries. But we will leave a decision until the weekend before. Like-A-Butterfly is fine at the moment," he said.
The Curragh trainer confirmed Le Coudray will run in the second last race of the festival instead of the SunAlliance a day earlier. "We're thinking of the conditions with him and he'll run in the Cathcart. But he too would need it on the easy side," Roche said.
Youlneverwalkalone and Silver Steel are the other Roche possibles for Cheltenham but the weather forecast is not helping the trainer's plans. "It's been the same for the last few years. You can bet your life if it's dry now, it will be drier for the first race," he predicted.
Dry ground would be ideal for Florida Pearl at his best but his festival hopes remain the same as when he was pulled up in the Hennessy Gold Cup and was found to have a respiratory tract infection afterwards.
"The better the ground the better it is for him but things are not looking good for getting him there. Nothing has changed," trainer Willie Mullins said yesterday.
Mullins plans to put the final touches to his festival team over the next few days and does so on an upswing after a season badly afected by the virus. "The virus went through the place but we haven't had any sick horses for the the last eight to 10 weeks so I'm much happier. There has been no coughing but things are a lot better than they were two weeks ago," he said.
How that impacts on some of the high-profile Mullins runners remains to be seen but Adamant Approach is still on track for the Arkle Trophy. "He's alright and he schooled very well this morning. But he was under a cloud 10 days ago and we will give him a few bits of work and then decide," he said.
