Minella Yoga bursts into Triumph Hurdle picture

Minella Yoga put himself in the Triumph Hurdle picture when making a perfect stable debut for Paul Nicholls in the Coral “Daily Rewards Shaker” “Introductory” Hurdle at Newbury.

The three-year-old was starting out on British shores with one run and one win on his CV so far as he had landed a Fairyhouse academy hurdle by five lengths for prior trainer John Nallen.

He went off at 16-5 under Harry Cobden, with Nicky Henderson’s well-regarded course winner and Supreme Novices’ Hurdle hope Act Of Innocence, formerly trained by Nicholls, the 2-7 favourite in a field of eight.

The favourite made the running and much of the field faltered behind him, but he could not shake off Minella Yoga who was always in his slipstream.

As the two surged clear of their rivals it was the horse under the lighter 10st 6lb burden who came out on top by three-quarters of a length with the third-placed Blues Singer 12 lengths back.

Nicholls said: “He’s a very nice youngster and I obviously felt I had half a chance by running him against Act Of Innocence and I couldn’t have had a better result to be honest.

“He’s still a bit backwards and green and he will have learned plenty today. I thought we had a nice weight which helped us and he’s a three-year-old but with the size of him, he’s hardly one of those.

“He’s one of the nicest youngsters we have without a shadow of a doubt and he’s going to be better on slower ground as I was a bit nervous about the ground today. He’s got a lot of class.”

He went on: “It’s amazing as he’s just done that and is hardly blowing. We’ve liked what we’ve seen at home and we took him for a gallop at Wincanton and went very very nicely.

“It’s great for Michael (Geoghegan, owner) who has heavily invested and bought a few nice horses with me lately and he’s going to get more involved and it’s fantastic.

“Jumping a bit quicker and all those other things will come and he’s just a gorgeous horse and I’m really thrilled with that.”

Although having downed his elders to remain unbeaten, Nicholls suggested Minella Yoga could revert to racing against his own age group in future, with a trip to Cheltenham on January 24 for the JCB Triumph Trial Juvenile Hurdle a possible appetiser for a Triumph Hurdle bid.

Both Paddy Power and BetVictor make the youngster a 16-1 chance for the Festival in March, with Nicholls adding: “He’ll definitely have an entry for the Triumph and I wouldn’t be afraid of running him in it. You could definitely see him galloping up that Cheltenham hill OK.

“It won’t be the be-all and end-all though and he’s never run on the Flat despite being Flat bred. Ultimately he’ll be a really nice horse in the future.

“I haven’t really thought of a plan beyond today. Trials day is around three weeks away and we could look at that definitely to see where we stand. I would imagine he will take the race today really well but you do have to mind them a little bit.”