Bailey seeking future pointers from Chianti Classico at Cheltenham

Kim Bailey expects to have a clearer idea of what route Chianti Classico will pursue for the rest of this season after he lines up in the feature event at Cheltenham on Friday.

A Cheltenham Festival winner in last season’s Ultima Handicap Chase, the seven-year-old looked to have improved again when making a successful reappearance in the Sodexo Gold Cup at Ascot in November.

Chianti Classico was due to tackle the Grand National fences for the first time in last weekend’s Becher Chase, but with Aintree’s fixture abandoned due to high winds, he has been switched to the Sonic The Hedgehog 3 Coming Soon Handicap Chase at Prestbury Park.

“It’s been very frustrating. The whole plan was to go to Aintree last weekend, so this is a bit of a fallback situation, but he’s going to go off favourite for a decent race,” Bailey told Sky Sports Racing.

“Ciaran (Gethings) schooled him this morning. He’s never sat on the horse before today and he’ll get on very well with him I’m sure.”

Bailey considers Chianti Classico as a genuine Grand National contender at this stage, but it is not beyond the realms of possibility that he could yet enter the Cheltenham Gold Cup picture if he can win off his revised mark of 157.

“We’d rather hoped he’d have the opportunity to go to Aintree last weekend to find out whether he’d handle the track. I don’t doubt he wouldn’t, but from our point of view it would have been quite nice to see how he did handle it,” he added.

“I said after he won at Cheltenham that he’s an ideal horse for the Grand National and I still believe he is. The problem is if he wins on Friday he’s going to back up the handicap again. He’s been carrying 12st and he’s not the world’s biggest horse.

“He has another 8lb or 9lb to go before he becomes a Grade One horse, so we’ll learn a lot on Friday. If he gets beat on Friday the Grand National will be his number one target, if he happens to go and win we can start thinking of other days.

“You’ve got the Denman Chase and the Cotswold Chase. It’s a big day for him on Friday.”

It promises to be a big weekend for the Andoversford handler, with stable stalwart Does He Know heading north to contest the bet365 Handicap Chase at Doncaster on Saturday.

The nine-year-old twice finished fourth at Cheltenham during the autumn and Bailey is looking forward to sending him back to a track where he won the Grimthorpe Chase last season.

He added: “Does He Know is in a good place. Ciaran Gethings rode him work this morning and schooled him and that all went very well, so he’s on course for Saturday.

“He’s a proper old-fashioned type of chaser really because he seems to get better as he gets older. His two runs this season have been very good – he’s done nothing wrong.

“Last time he probably didn’t quite get the trip. I know he got three and a quarter miles before at Cheltenham, but that was on quite quick ground and it probably wasn’t the world’s greatest race.

“He’s incredibly versatile (ground-wise). He’s not the biggest and he’s a quirky individual, but he’s got such a huge amount of talent.

“I’m really pleased with him and he’s been an absolute gem for us.”

Bailey also provided an update on plans for Trelawne, who got the better of the high-class Iroko on his seasonal debut at Haydock last month.

“He worked this morning, I was very happy with him and if the ground is soft enough he’ll probably go to Ascot (Silver Cup) next weekend,” said the trainer.

“The Welsh Grand National is a big step up – he’s not been three miles over fences yet. To go from where he was the other day over two-five, I’d like to go three miles next time if I possibly can do, which probably means the Welsh National (three miles and five furlongs) becomes a difficult option.

“I am slightly concerned if we have a dry forecast the ground might be a bit too quick for him at Ascot, so we might have to reroute and see where we are.”