Route to Cheltenham Festival begins at Wetherby

The seven-year-old was last seen defying odds of 50-1 to land the Grade One at Cheltenham in March under Adam Wedge, one of the most under-rated riders in the weighing room.

Wetherby’s West Yorkshire Hurdle on October 31 will be his first target this season, with a string of graded contests then on his schedule before the 2021 Festival.

“He’s going to go to Wetherby for his first run,” said Curtis. “He’s ready to run, and there was nothing else for him until the Long Distance Hurdle at Newbury – which is at the end of November. He’s come to hand, so we thought we’d give him an outing up there (Wetherby).”

Lisnagar Oscar was third behind Paisley Park in the Cleeve Hurdle on Festival Trials Day at Cheltenham in January, and that is a race he could contest again. “We’ll do the normal stayers’ hurdle route,” added Curtis.

“We’ll probably start at Wetherby, then Newbury and then the Long Walk hurdle at Ascot. He’ll then possibly go for the Cleeve and then straight to the Cheltenham Festival after that.”

This time last year Lisnagar Oscar ran twice over fences before reverting to hurdles, and that is a route Curtis is not discounting in future campaigns if he does not prosper at the highest level this season.

“I think if he can retain his ability from last year then he’ll be looking like one of the best staying hurdlers about,” she said.

“He’d stick to hurdles in that case. But if for some reason he didn’t end up keeping that Grade One class over hurdles then we may, next season, have a think about fences. It depends how this season goes.”

Yorkshire’s 2013 Grand National-winning trainer Sue Smith is looking forward to two of her stable stalwarts running at Aintree tomorrow.

Midnight Shadow, a dual Grade Two winner at Cheltenham, reappears in a very competitive renewal of the Old Roan Chase over two-and-a-half miles with Sean Quinlan deputising for the injury-sidelined Danny Cook.

The field includes Olly Murphy’s Itchy Feet, who denied Midnight Shadow and Smith a Grade One win at Sandown last season.

“It’s very competitive but you’ve got to make a start and, hopefully, he will run a big race,” Smith told The Yorkshire Post. “He seems very well in himself.”

She said the plan will, at some stage, be to step the horse up in trip to three miles and see whether he can develop into a Cheltenham Gold Cup contender – but that the plan was to stick to shorter distances for now.

In a supporting race, the grey Vintage Clouds has top weight in the veterans chase under Ryan Mania, who rode Smith’s Auroras Encore to National glory.

“The old boy seems in good form – the only thing with him is his weight which doesn’t do him any favours,” she added.

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James Mitchinson