AFTER a second Gold Cup disappointment Paul Nicholls has admitted defeat in Clan Des Obeaux’s Festival dream.
The two-time King George champ will not be seen at Prestbury Park again as the Ditcheat handler eyes up a trip to Ireland instead.
Part-owned by Manchester United legend Sir Alex Ferguson, the horse has struggled in both Gold Cups won by Al Boum Photo.
The eight-year-old followed last season’s fifth with an eighth in yesterday’s renewal and a run at Punchestown is now on the cards.
Nicholls said: “We are not going to go to the Gold Cup next year – we will stick to going right handed.
“We won’t even consider him as a Gold Cup horse next year. We can do better if we place him right. He obviously doesn’t like it around Cheltenham.
Next season it will be Down Royal for the Champion Chase in November, the King George, then Punchestown – and he might have something else in between Kempton and Punchestown.”
Just two of Clan Des Obeaux’s six chase victories have come at left-handed courses, and Nicholls will map out his future programme accordingly – with a trip to the Punchestown Festival a possibility not just next year, but to end the current campaign too.
He added: “We will go to Punchestown with him at the end of the season, if he is all right. I think Punchestown will suit him, and that will give him plenty of time from this.
“He loves Kempton, so next season we will concentrate on the King George. We will definitely stick to going right handed.”
Nicholls had hoped Clan Des Obeaux could yet prove himself in the Gold Cup – but after his latest disappointment there, he has accepted that is unlikely to ever be the case.
He said: “We rode him a bit dropped in around the inner, and he didn’t like it and he was never happy – he obviously doesn’t get a three and a quarter.
“Harry Cobden has said he might want a pair of cheek-pieces on.”
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