Impressive William Hill Hurdle winner Tutti Quanti may have his sights raised at the Cheltenham Festival next month.
Sent off in front by Harry Cobden, he would barely have seen another rival throughout the race. The six-year-old galloped relentlessly through the heavy going at Newbury on Saturday. By the time the field for the Premier Handicap turned into the straight, there was already only one plausible winner. He kept up his punishing pace to score by 15 lengths over runner-up Wellington Arch.
The victory was secured off top-weight of 12 stone, a first in the history of the contest.
Tutti Quanti has previous experience of the Cheltenham Festival. He finished sixth as a rank outsider for the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle last season.
Nicholls hails Tutti Quanti’s ‘engine’
“He’s becoming a real horse now and soft ground helps as not many go through it like he can,” Nicholls told Sky Sports. “He’s got some engine and he’s hardly having a blow and I knew turning in when he quickened they would struggle to catch him.
“He’s not entered in anything after today and today has always been the target. We were thinking of putting him in the County Hurdle and a few of those others but we might just have a rethink if the ground was right for him.
“We have just said we could supplement him for the Champion Hurdle if we wanted to and the great thing about supplementing him is you only have to do it five-or six days before the race and you will have a great idea about what the ground will be.”
One of the deciding factors for his participation at Cheltenham is likely to be the ground. His latest win came on bottomless going on Saturday.
“If the ground was testing we might look at and I’m not saying we will, but we might,” added Nicholls. “If the ground was good we wouldn’t.
“He would hold his own and it’s an open race this year as we know and if the ground was testing we would want him in there.”
Champion Hurdle rivals
Some bookmakers entered Tutti Quanti into their markets, with 25/1 the biggest odds on offer about Nicholls’ charge. Brighterdaysahead and The New Lion, trained by Nicholls’ former assistant Dan Skelton, are the favourites as things stand.