Fry weighing up options for back to form Gidleigh Park

Harry Fry is considering February options at Warwick and Kempton with Gidleigh Park – but an appearance at the Cheltenham Festival the following month is far from certain.

Unbeaten in his first four starts before finishing sixth in the Albert Bartlett at the Festival last season, the seven-year-old was disappointingly pulled up on his chasing debut at Kempton in November and was subsequently found to be suffering from a fibrillating heart.

He therefore lined up with something to prove in the Grade Two Lightning Novices’ Chase at Windsor on Friday, but bounced back with a dominant front-running victory over Caldwell Potter, much to the delight and relief of his trainer.

Fry said: “He seems absolutely fine, which is obviously first and foremost, and we can look forward to working out where we go next.

“We’re obviously keen to get as much experience into him as possible and there are a couple of options in February; you’ve got the Kingmaker at Warwick over two miles or you’ve got the Pendil at Kempton a couple of weeks later over two-and-a-half.

“We’ll let the dust settle and see how he is in himself before deciding which target we go for.”

With what was the Turners Novices’ Chase being run as a handicap at the Festival this season, Gidleigh Park’s only realistic Cheltenham target would be the Arkle Trophy.

However, Fry would be quite happy to bypass the meeting altogether if he feels it is in the best interests of his stable star.

“With the season we’ve had, Cheltenham might just come too soon for him this year, bearing in mind that we need to get experience into him. If that is the case, we’ve got Aintree to look forward to instead,” he added.

“It’s just great to have him back to full health and putting up the sort of performance that we hoped he was capable of – and we hope there’s more to come off the back of what was effectively his first run of the season, having only gone five fences on his reappearance.

“From a fitness point of view and an experience point of view, there should be improvement to come, so there’s lots to look forward to as we work towards the spring.”