Grade 1 winner Le Patron is one of five declarations for Sandown’s Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase on Saturday. The race is the only Grade 1 run in Great Britain at the weekend, with the Dublin Racing Festival boasting the majority of the top level fare, though clues for the 2024 Cheltenham Festival may still be found. The race has been won in recent years by L’Homme Presse and Defi Du Seuil on their way to Festival success.
Gary Moore’s charge caused a 16/1 shock when winning at the track in December, but connections will now be dreaming of a top tier double as they step the six-year-old up in trip for the first time.
Among his main rivals is Paul Nicholls’ Hermes Allen. Also a winner at Grade 1 level as a novice hurdler, he claimed the Grade 2 John Francome Novices’ Chase at Newbury on his debut over the larger obstacles before running into the smart French runner Il Est Francais at Kempton on Boxing Day.
Potential Irish raider Corbetts Cross has not been declared by Emmet Mullins, but Towton Novices’ Chase winner Colonel Harry will represent Jamie Snowden; he was second to Le Patron in the Henry VIII.
Fellow Graded winner Djelo, running for the same trainer-jockey partnership as L’Homme Presse, will look to bounce back from an early mishap at Lingfield recently, while the field is rounded off by Sarah Humphrey’s tearaway front-runner Nickle Back, returning to this trip of 2m4f.