Captain Conan added to Deloitte Novice Hurdle

CAPTAIN CONAN, winner of the Grade 1 32Red Hurdle at Sandown last month, has been added to the Deloitte Novice Hurdle at Tuesday's supplementary and forfeit stage.

The five-year-old was having his first run outside France and for trainer Nicky Henderson when winning at Sandown and could now tackle the likes of the Willie Mullins-trained Sous Les Cieux in Sunday's race having been supplemented at a cost of €8,000.

"Captain Conan worked very well this morning and I spoke to Barry [Geraghty, jockey] and he said why not give it a go, so the plan is to run," Henderson said on Tuesday.

"He is a lovely big horse and he is a real chaser in the making, but there is nothing coming up for him in Britain so I supplemented him and we'll see how he gets on. We could run him in an ordinary race with a Grade 1 penalty and not find out a great deal, so we'll let him take his chance and that will tell where he'll go for the rest of the season."

The day's feature, the Hennessy Gold Cup, has been whittled down to ten with all the main contenders, including Lexus Chase winner Synchronised, standing their ground.

The Minack, ruled out by trainer Paul Nicholls on Monday, was the shortest-priced withdrawal at a general 10-1.

Gigginstown House Stud, likely to be represented by Last Instalment in the Dr PJ Moriarty Novice Chase on the same card, could also run Bog Warrior and Gift Of Dgab, but Sir Des Champs has been taken out.

The first Grade 1 of the afternoon is the Spring Juvenile Hurdle, which has lost Minsk, but keeps the John Ferguson-trained Asaid and the promising Mullins-trained quintet of Darroun, Midnight Oil, Shamar, Ut De Sivola and Gorgeous Sixty.