THE exciting Ribble Valley will step up in class on his next outing for Nicky Richards.
Unbeaten in two novice hurdles, the Grade 2 Kennel Gate Hurdle at Ascot and long-term the Morebattle and Premier Hurdle at Kelso are options for the six-year-old.
Ridden by Brian Hughes and in the colours of the legendary stable star Monet’s Garden, Richards thinks the horse has a huge future and has begun to plan out his season.
He told Sun Racing: “You would have to hope he has a very bright future and we have always loved the horse.
“We’ve been in the game a long time and when we get a good one, we know we’ve got a good one, we latched onto that fairly sharp. I suppose that has shown with the prices he’s been going off even if we’re not a gambling yard.
“It’s great when you think you have a good one and they start proving you right on the track. The dream is still alive with him and he’s got everything about him.
“He’s got speed to burn and I’d say he’d make a high-class Flat horse, but the problem you would have is that he wouldn’t fit in the stalls, he’s a fair unit!”
Ribble Valley made it two from two over hurdles at Wetherby on Wednesday, seeing off good yardsticks from Dan Skelton and Nigel Twiston-Davies in the process by an eased down an 11 lengths.
He added: “After Hexham we thought we would get another easy win into him, and then we saw the entries at Wetherby and thought bloody hell this doesn’t look too easy.
“My daughter Joey rides him most of the time and we thought if he is as good as we think he is, we will run him.
“He beat some proper horses and they went a good gallop. He is some traveller, he winged the second last and just came out of Brian’s hands at the last, but Brian said when he is rolling he didn’t want to steady him.”
In the final leg of our northern tour, @NGRichardsRace opened his doors for an exclusive stable tour
Featuring Simply Ned, Guitar Pete, Takingrisks and more
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— Sun Racing (@SunRacing) November 29, 2019
He is as short as 25-1 for the Supreme with some bookies, but Richards has warned if all goes well before the spring it could be Aintree over Pretsbury Park.
Richards continued: “Look, I wouldn’t advise anyone to take him on unless they’ve got a proper one.
“Next year we could look at the Morebattle and the Premier Hurdle at Kelso, we won both of those with Glingerburn.
“I will just have a look at the dates. We’ve got the option of Aintree which David enjoyed when we had the old horse Monets.”
Speaking after his win at Wetherby, jockey Brian Hughes added: “Hes a nice horse and weve always thought quite a bit about him.
“The other horses there have some proper form in the book and realistically that was a quality race and hes confirmed what we thought of him, weve always held him in high regards.
“Were looking forward to him for the rest of the season, my hope is just that I can keep riding him for the rest of the year.”
