Soft ground key to Salver’s Ascot Hurdle challenge

Josh Moore is keeping his fingers crossed for suitably soft ground to allow Salver to make his seasonal debut in the Howden Ascot Hurdle on Saturday.

The four-year-old was one of the star performers in the juvenile hurdling division last season, winning his first four races, including a 21-length demolition job in the Grade Two Finale Hurdle at Chepstow.

He rounded off his campaign by finishing best of the home team when third in the Triumph Hurdle behind the Willie Mullins-trained pair of Majborough and Kargese at the Cheltenham Festival, and connections are looking forward to his return – but underfoot conditions are viewed as vital.

Moore, who trains Salver in partnership with his father Gary, said: “He may run if there’s enough rain. It looks like there might be, so he’ll probably be declared and we’ll go from there.

“He’s a good horse on bad ground and it needs to be bad ground for him to be anywhere near his best form. He’s a good horse anyway, but to be at his best, he needs it to be wet.

“The four-year-old season is always hard, especially when you’re rated 143, and for him it’s very important he runs on bad ground.

“There’s the Gerry Feilden at Newbury the following week, which is also a possible plan, but the likelihood is it will only be good to soft ground there, which is not slow enough for him.”

The Moores are also hoping to be represented in the other Grade Two on Saturday’s card, the Copybet 1965 Chase, with Le Patron in line to make his comeback.

The six-year-old impressed in winning his first three starts over fences last season, including a Grade One success in the Henry VIII Novices’ Chase at Sandown, but he was well beaten in the Scilly Isles at the same track next time before being pulled up at the Cheltenham Festival.

“Again, he’ll run if it’s soft enough. I think they’re due a bit of rain on Saturday morning, which is why we’re hoping to run on Saturday and not Friday,” Moore added.

“They’re due a bit of dry today and tomorrow, so hopefully it will rain enough for him to run, as he is a soft ground horse as well.

“He’s in better shape now than he was in the spring. He seems well and Saturday would be a nice starting point for him anyway.

“He was well handicapped early on last season and conditions suited him. It’s going to be tough for him this year, rated 146, but we’ve got to start somewhere and he would have started before now if it had rained, but it hasn’t. We’ve got to run him when the ground is right.”