Connections will wait until Friday morning before deciding whether to supplement Spillane’s Tower for the Ladbrokes King George VI Chase.
Jimmy Mangan’s stable star is the 4/1 second-favourite with the race sponsors after filling the runner-up spot behind fellow JP McManus-owned chaser Fact To File in the John Durkan at Punchestown.
Also a dual Grade One winner as a novice over fences last season, Spillane’s Tower would clearly be a major contender for the Boxing Day showpiece at Kempton Park, but the McManus team are keen to see some ease in the ground before making a final call on whether to add him to the field at a cost of £4,600.
Either way McManus is set to be represented in a race he won for the first and only time to date with French star First Gold 24 years ago, with the Emmet Mullins-trained Corbetts Cross confirmed as an intended runner.
“At the minute Corbetts Cross is on course to go there and we’ll just check the ground in the morning for Spillane’s Tower and see what they’re saying,” the owner’s racing manager Frank Berry said on Thursday.
“If it’s soft he’ll probably be supplemented. You’d want to see the word soft in it, definitely.
“It’s decision time in the morning, so we’ll take it from there.”
The going at Kempton was described as good to soft, good in places on Thursday afternoon following three millimetres of rain overnight. There is a risk of showers every day until Monday, with Christmas Day and Boxing Day looking mild and dry with sunny periods.
McManus has a wealth of talent in the staying chase division this season, with Fact To File the current ante-post favourite for the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
With Corbetts Cross and possibly Spillane’s Tower pencilled in for Kempton, the Willie Mullins-trained Fact To File looks set for a mouthwatering rematch with stablemate Galopin Des Champs in the Savills Chase at Leopardstown on Saturday week, having beaten him into third place in the John Durkan.
Berry, who also confirmed the Savills Chase as the likely comeback target of Grand National hero I Am Maximus, admits deciding how to split their horses is a high-class problem.
“Fact To File and I Am Maximus look to be going to Leopardstown,” he added.
“It’s a good problem to have, but with the dry winter it has left things a bit congested for us.”
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