Noble Yeats is set to warm-up for his bid for a famous Gold Cup – Grand National double at Lingfield or Cheltenham in January.
He is still in the Ladbrokes King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day but owner Robert Waley-Cohen doesn’t feel conditions will be right for his rising star there.
He told the Nick Luck Daily Podcast: “I think the ground is going to end up being too quick. The frost is supposed to go if we’re lucky by the 18th or 19th, the race is only a week later and it would absolutely have to have biblical, flooding type rain to make Kempton suitable for him to make the trip over. I can’t see that happening so my expectation is we’re not going to run.
“We wouldn’t have entered and left him in until this stage if we hadn’t thought it was a possibility. After the Many Clouds it was definitely still on the horizon but the weather just hasn’t left that happen.”
So what are the plans for last year's Randox Grand National hero who was so impressive over the regulation fences at Aintree last month?
“We only want to run him once more before the Gold Cup, that’s absolutely on the agenda and this year there’s a month between Cheltenham and Liverpool which is helpful.
“The two possible races are one at Lingfield on 22 January or the Cotswold Chase [Cheltenham trials day] the following Saturday.”
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