Chantry House will bid to reassert Gold Cup aspirations in Cotswold Chase

Chantry House will bid to get back on track in the Paddy Power Cotswold Chase at Cheltenham on Saturday after a below-par effort in the King George VI Chase.

Nicky Henderson’s dual Grade One winner was sent off 3-1 favourite for Kempton’s Christmas feature but was never travelling well and was pulled up at the 12th fence.

The eight-year-old has the chance to put himself back in the frame for the Cheltenham Gold Cup, for which he is a 16-1 chance.

“The plan is for him to go there. He was very disappointing on the day in the King George. We couldn’t find the reason for it, but Nicky seems to be very happy in the meantime and hopefully he’ll have a nice run on Saturday,” said Frank Berry, racing manager to owner JP McManus.

“You’d like to think the Gold Cup would be the target, but we have to get Saturday out of the way first and see how he gets on.”

Among the eight entries is the novice Ahoy Senor, who holds entries in the Gold Cup and the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase at the Festival.

The seven-year-old, trained by Lucinda Russell, was outpointed by Bravemansgame in the Grade One Kauto Star Novices’ Chase at Kempton after landing an impressive success by 31 lengths at Newbury in November.

The Polly Gundry-trained Santini, winner of this race in 2020 when with the Henderson yard, is also a possible. The others are Aye Right, Ex Patriot, Kauto Riko, Simply The Betts and Coole Cody, who also holds an entry in the Welsh Marches Stallions At Chapel Stud Cleeve Hurdle.