Knight Salute on course for Cheltenham return on Saturday week

Knight Salute, one of last season’s top juvenile hurdlers, is set to return to action at Cheltenham on Saturday week.

The Milton Harris-trained gelding signed off last year with Grade One success in a dramatic running of the Anniversary 4-Y-O Juvenile Hurdle at Aintree, where he originally dead-heated with Pied Piper before the stewards then awarded him the race outright.

His ninth place behind Vauban in the Triumph Hurdle is his sole defeat in seven outings over timber, and he will now head back to Cheltenham for the Masterson Holdings Hurdle.

Harris said: “He’s ready to roll again. He goes to Cheltenham for the four-year-old hurdle on the Saturday, so we are in a good place.”

Meanwhile, highly-regarded stablemate Mullenbeg, who had her colours lowered by 50-1 chance Martalindy at Huntingdon on Tuesday, will undergo “a good MOT”, according to her trainer.

The five-year-old mare has been sent off favourite on each of her last four runs since recording back-to-back bumper wins for the Warminster yard and has been beaten on each occasion.

Downed by a neck as a 2-13 favourite when trying an extended two miles and three furlongs in a maiden hurdle on her latest outing, Harris is at a loss to explain her form.

He said: “I don’t have any answers, although I am pretty sure her wind is catching her out, because something is not right. She is well in her coat and is working well.

“She is going to (equine vet) Ben Brain’s on Thursday to have a good MOT. I’m sure we will get to the bottom of it.

“Like everyone else, we have some good days and some bad days, but that is the nature of the sport we are in.”