Hurricane Pat heading for Haydock run at the weekend

Hurricane Pat and Old Park Star could be set for an intriguing clash in the Sky Bet Supreme Trial Rossington Main Novices’ Hurdle at Haydock on Saturday.

The Noel Fehily Racing team already have one potential Supreme Novices’ Hurdle contender on their hands in the Alan King-trained Baron Noir following his impressive victory at Kempton on Saturday and Hurricane Pat will be given the chance to stake his Cheltenham Festival claim on Merseyside this weekend.

The five-year-old, trained by the father-son partnership of Gary and Josh Moore, has impressed in winning his first two starts over hurdles at Sandown and is now poised to step up to Grade Two level.

“He’s got to come out and back up what he did at Sandown, as he looked very impressive there,” said Fehily.

“We could end up having two darts to fire at the Cheltenham Festival if this goes well after Baron Noir winning at Kempton. They are two very good horses and we’re glad to have them.

“Hurricane Pat is a horse who is getting stronger every time. We started the season with three novice hurdlers and two of them have turned out pretty good.”

Old Park Star is a best-priced 6-1 second-favourite for the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and could bid to provide his trainer Nicky Henderson with a third victory in the last four runnings of the Rossington Main, having struck gold with Jonbon in 2022 and Jeriko Du Reponet two years ago.

Henderson said: “He’s due to go to Haydock, that’s the plan. There’s lots of water to go under the bridge, but Old Park Star is definitely intended to go to Haydock.”

Other contenders include Jamie Snowden’s Listed-winning mare La Conquiere and Japetus, who has won his last four races for Nicky Richards.

The feature race at Haydock is the Sky Bet Peter Marsh Handicap Chase, which features two previous winners in Royale Pagaille and Mr Vango.

Royale Pagaille claimed this prestigious handicap in 2021 and 2022 and was disappointingly pulled up in his hat-trick bid 12 months ago. The five-time course winner looks primed for a return after finishing second to Grey Dawning when defending his Betfair Chase crown in November.

Mr Vango won last year’s Peter Marsh and may bid for back-to-back wins following the abandonment of last weekend’s Classic Chase at Warwick.

Rowland Meyrick winner Konfusion is also among the 15 entries, as is Olly Murphy’s bet365 Gold Cup hero Resplendent Grey.