3 minute read
The Betfair Chase remains a possibility for Bravemansgame, who suffered a narrow defeat in Saturday's Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby.
Trainer Paul Nicholls has not ruled out the possibility that the King George VI Chase winner could back up quickly at Haydock on 25 November.
Bravemansgame took the Charlie Hall Chase en route to King George VI Chase success last year and had been pencilled in for a possible reappearance in the Betfair Chase, but connections chose the Wetherby option due to concerns over Haydock ground in late November.
The eight-year-old looked likely to start this campaign off with a win in the Charlie Hall Chase before making an error at the final fence, handing victory to the race-fit Gentlemansgame.
In an interview with Betfair, Nicholls said: "He ran a super race, and it was probably a better performance than a year ago.
"The ground was testing enough for him, and you could probably run the race 100 times and get a different result each time, but if he hadn't made that mistake at the last and had landed running, it could have been a whole heap different.
"He got beat by a good, improving, young, race-fit horse and we paid for a little mistake. It was his first run of the season, and I was going to have him nowhere near his best first-time-out. Obviously, we want him to step forward from that and he will do."
"He's come out of the race really well, he's actually had a canter today, and there is still a possibility of him running in the Betfair Chase.
"It's a fantastic race and I love supporting it and have done well in it. Plenty of horses I have had have used that as a stepping stone to the King George and in a lot of ways Saturday was a bit of a racecourse gallop for him.
"He had not been anywhere before Saturday and if we were happy with him and the ground was OK – that is key, I don't want to give him a hard race, a slog in really testing ground before the King George – but if we had a dry week up to it and the ground was good to soft, then it could be tempting."
