PHILIP HOBBS is confident Defi Du Seuil will set his spine tingling in Saturday’s Tingle Creek.
The exciting six-year-old is hot favourite for the prestigious Grade 1 contest.
Winner of last year’s JLT at the Cheltenham Festival, JP McManus’ classy chaser returned with a bang in the Shloer Chase last month – and his trainer reckons he can continue his sharp rise up the ranks.
He said: I am looking forward to it. He is still only six and he could be better over a longer trip but we don’t know that yet. There is plenty of room to improve further but he is already a very high class performer.
I am sure he would stay further. When he won at the Cheltenham Festival it was over two and a half miles, so that will not be a problem.
“However, the two mile division at the moment looks like the weaker division. He has got plenty of speed for two miles so it makes sense to aim for the Tingle Creek.
Defi Du Seuil’s performance to land the Shloer was notable for his electric turn of foot, and Hobbs believes that was a good indicator of his fitness.
He added: He was as fit as we could get him before Cheltenham. Most horses improve a bit for their first run of the season. I don’t think there was a lot left to work on, I wouldn’t want to be running him in Graded races when he is three quarters fit.
“He certainly might of come on a little bit but I don’t expect massive improvement after that.
I think you take every race one after another and reassess afterwards. We will run him at the trip which we think he is going to be most effective at and it will depend a bit on the opposition and what else is turning up as well.
