Chris Gordon targets Aintree with top novice as he revels in 'fantastic' weekend

Chris Gordon is leaning towards Aintree rather than Cheltenham as he assesses spring festival targets for his game Dovecote Novices' Hurdle winner Aucunrisque.

The six-year-old built on a wide-margin handicap success at Wincanton to make all of the running under Tom Cannon in the Grade 2 at Kempton on Saturday and showed great heart to fend off the well-fancied Shallwehaveonemore.

It was a third win in a row over hurdles for Aucunrisque and Gordon, who also won the race in 2020 with Highway One O Two, was in no rush to make plans for his progressive performer when speaking to the Racing Post on Sunday.

The trainer said: "The horse had to do it the hard way. I think one thing with him is the stronger the gallop, the better horse we might see, so in a novice we just thought we’ve got to make plenty of use of him because he’s a bit more hardened than some."

Aucunrisque is as short as 10-1 with bet365 for the McCoy Contractors County Hurdle, his sole Cheltenham Festival entry, but Gordon, who also struck with Storm Dennis at Kempton, is inclined to play the waiting game.

Tom Cannon gets Storm Dennis (green) up late to complete a double at Kempton on Saturday for Chris GordonCredit: Alan Crowhurst

"I would prefer to give him a bit more of a break and maybe go to Aintree with him," he added. "We’ll see how things go. If I knew the ground at the Imperial Cup at Sandown would be spot-on for him I would have been tempted to have gone to Sandown but we’ve gone down this route instead.

"You know what Sandown’s like when it starts raining and he just wouldn’t have suited it. I’d be quite keen on Aintree, but we’ll just have to see how we go."

A good weekend was capped off for the Gordon family when the Hampshire trainer’s son Freddie steered Highway One O One, a six-time winner under rules, to success in a point-to-point at Larkhill on Sunday.

"Saturday was a red-letter day for the yard, it was great," he said.

"Obviously my name is on there but it’s a team effort between me, my wife Jenny and the team. It was a fantastic day and the thing that’s just put the icing on the cake is my son’s just gone and won a point-to-point at Larkhill, so a really good weekend.

"I’d love to be sitting in the pub at 4pm having a Sunday roast but I’ve got to dash to Hereford now - there we are."

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