Willie Mullins’s “softly-softly” approach on the run-in to a possible Champion Hurdle bid by Un de Sceaux could now take in a trip to Sandown on Sunday. Ireland’s champion trainer has put the unbeaten star into the re-opened Listed Betfred Contenders Hurdle which attracted nine entries yesterday.
They include the Champion Hurdle outsider Melodic Rendezvouz as well as the Nicky Henderson-trained Whisper but all eyes will be on Un de Sceaux, as low as 10-1 for the Champion at Cheltenham, if Mullins sends him.
Despite being unbeaten in six runs, and scoring wide-margin wins at Thurles and Navan this season, Un de Sceaux has yet to appear in Graded company.
Yet the manner of his wins has the ex-French star in contention for the Champion Hurdle alongside the title-holder Hurricane Fly and another stable companion Annie Power.
Sandown's other reopened contest is the Grade One Scilly Isles Novice Chase which now has seven entries headed by the former top-flight hurdler Oscar Whiskey.
Meanwhile, Coolmore Stud’s expensive American purchase No Nay Never is likely to make his first start of 2014 at Gulfstream Park in Florida on March 1st. The Wesley Ward-trained colt was bought by Coolmore after his Norfolk Stakes success at Royal Ascot in June, after which he landed the Group One Prix Morny in France.
No Nay Never holds a 2,000 Guineas entry but Ward is instead thinking of a return to Ascot for the St James’s Palace Stakes and intends to use the Swale Stakes on dirt in March as a seasonal debut.
“It’s a historical race, it tends to attract the better three year olds, and if he can win on dirt as well as turf then he becomes a very attractive stallion prospect,” Ward said. “The race comes earlier than I’d like but after it I’d have two months to prepare him before he goes to Ascot.”
