Lieutenant set for active service at Cheltenham

First Lieutenant to run at Cheltenham Festival?

After mulling over his three options over the last month, Irish trainer Mouse Morris has confirmed that his exciting young hurdler First Lieutenant will take his chance in the Neptune Investment Management Novices’ Hurdle, the second race on day two of the Cheltenham Festival 2011, writes Elliot Slater.

Morris had entered his Grade 1 winner in the Stan James Champion Hurdle and the Albert Bartlett Novices Hurdle as well as the ‘Neptune’, but after taking all things into consideration he has judged that the novice company and the two-mile-five furlong trip is most likely to suit his six-year-old, currently quoted at odds of 12/1 for the big race.

Unlike so many of the Irish contenders for honours at the four-day jumps racing spectacular, such as Pandorama who goes in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, First Lieutenant will be perfectly at home if the ground dries out, Morris being of the opinion that the Presenting gelding should be suited by a decent surface even though most of his races have taken place on very easy ground.

The winner of an Irish point-to-point in January of last year, the Gigginstown House Stud-owned prospect won his only bumper start at Gowran before finishing a respectable fourth of 30 runners in a Navan maiden hurdle in September. Clearly having learned plenty from that experience he justified odds-on when beating 22 rivals in a Punchestown maiden hurdle over two-and-a-half miles in October, before running his only disappointing race when a beaten odds-on shot, finishing third at Fairyhouse and looking as though he simply had an ‘off day’.

It was a completely different First Lieutenant who caused something of a surprise when tenaciously denying hotpot Zaidpour in the Grade 1 Future Champions Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown’s Christmas fixture, a run that stamped Morris’ novice as a horse with a big future.  Wednesday, March 16, will tell us just how good he is.

Posted by Matt on March 7, 2011. Filed under Cheltenham Festival, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.