King George still the plan for Il Est Francais

Il Est Francais remains on course for a second tilt at King George glory despite a disappointing return to action at Ascot on Saturday.

The seven-year-old was a brilliant winner of the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase over the King George course and distance two years ago and produced a fine front-running display in the Boxing Day showpiece last year, only to be reeled in late by Joseph O’Brien’s Banbridge.

Having subsequently failed to fire in the Ryanair Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, Il Est Francais left the French-based training partnership of Amanda Zetterholm and Noel George to join the latter’s father Tom ahead of the new campaign, but was pulled up in last weekend’s Ladbrokes 1965 Chase.

“Unfortunately it didn’t go to plan, but we’ll brush ourselves down and do what we can and have him ready for Kempton on Boxing Day, which is still our plan, like it was last year,” said George.

“It doesn’t appear to be straightforward with him, but we know on his day he’s very talented. He just needs everything to be right for his day, I think that’s the best way to put it.

“He was pulled up in his last run before the King George last year and I suppose in the back of our minds we were hoping a change of training routine would take that out of the equation, but we’ll go back to what he likes and we know he likes Kempton, so I think we’ve got to give him a chance.

“We’ll put that run on Saturday behind him, he’s cantered nicely this morning (Wednesday) and hopefully we can get him back to where he was last year.”