Gary Moore's Sire De Grugy was a hugely impressive winner of the Dovecote Novice's Hurdle at Kempton, but his connections were quick to rule him out of the Cheltenham Festival.
By winning the Grade 2 contest the five-year old did though pay a handsome compliment to a pair of Festival ante-post favourites and anyone thinking about placing Cheltenham 2011 bets should remember this.
He was beaten on his racecourse debut in a Sandown bumper, by Warren Greatrex's Knight Pass and he was then unfortunate to come up against the Nicky Henderson trained Bobs Worth when he made his hurdles debut at Kempton. That pair sit at or near the top of the Cheltenham betting offers for the Festival Bumper and The Neptune Novices Hurdle respectively.
Connections believe that the My Risk gelding is a 10lb better horse on soft ground, which is the reason he won't be going to Cheltenham, as quicker ground conditions are likely. With that in mind though it should be noted that conditions were plenty testing enough when Bobs Worth beat him, and that tells a story about the ability of Nicky Henderson's horse.
