Newbury target for talented Tellherthename

Tellherthename will return to action at Newbury next month in the race formally known as the Betfair Hurdle.

Currently listed as the Newbury Handicap Hurdle, the valuable handicap was an intended target for the talented six-year-old during his novice hurdling campaign for Ben Pauling, but was declared a non-runner on the day due to the unsuitably deep ground.

He would go on to run in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle in the spring and after making his seasonal return for his new training team of Jonjo and AJ O’Neill in the Fighting Fifth at Newcastle, Newbury’s £155,000 contest has entered the equation again following an interrupted campaign to date.

“Tellherthename has been a bit stop-start, he picked up a bug which stopped him a little bit and he wasn’t anywhere near fit when he ran in the Fighting Fifth, but the guys needed to get a run into him,” explained owner Andrew Megson.

“We then found a benign tumour in him. He’s perfectly OK and it can be cleared up by injection, but it just means you have to go easy for a few weeks – the vets said he clearly had it for a long time.

“He’s back and ready to go and hopefully will go to Newbury on Super Saturday.”

Tellherthename was a staying-on fourth behind Sir Gino in his Newcastle return, with connections taking plenty of encouragement from the winner’s subsequent ultra-impressive chasing debut at Kempton over Christmas.

However, it could prove to be a case of history repeated if conditions are testing at Newbury on February 8.

“What we won’t do is risk him on poor ground, he doesn’t get through it. But everything he has done at home on the gallops, he is everything we hoped he would be,” Megson added.

“To do what he did in the Fighting Fifth when he is not 100 per cent is fantastic given Sir Gino looks some horse – it’s amazing when a horse like Constitution Hill might not be the best horse in the yard.”