Harris sets out Elite aim for Knight Salute

Crack hurdler Knight Salute, who was beaten by Pied Piper on his seasonal bow at Cheltenham, will head to the Elite Hurdle at Wincanton on Saturday week.

Last season’s top juvenile, he capped an outstanding campaign when taking Grade One honours in the Anniversary 4-y-o Juvenile Hurdle at Aintree, getting the verdict over the Gordon Elliott-trained Pied Piper in the stewards’ room following a dead-heat.

That result was a sixth win in seven starts, his sole defeat coming when ninth in the Triumph Hurdle.

Though the tables were turned in the Masterson Holdings Hurdle at Cheltenham on Saturday’s return to action, trainer Milton Harris had few complaints after seeing the Four Candles Partnership-owned gelding suffer a two-and-three-quarter-length defeat under Paddy Brennan.

“I don’t offer any excuses and you can’t pick holes in it,” he said.

“I wish we’d have gone faster and he’d have settled a bit better, but there will be other days.”

Knight Salute will now bid to bounce back at Wincanton in one of the two major Champion Hurdle trials staged at the Warminster handler’s local track.

He is likely to take on Sceau Royal, who will bid to win the one-mile-seven-and-a-half-furlong Grade Two event for the fourth time at the age of 10 for Alan King.

“We’ve talked about it and we have decided to go for the Elite Hurdle at Wincanton,” said Harris.

“I expect we will come up against Alan King’s horse and a few more, but that is our plan.

“We will assess things after that. If the winner (Pied Piper) is only 12-1 for the Champion Hurdle, then we can’t be that far behind him, can we?”