'We're aiming for Sandown's EBF Final' - Valleres ready for Plumpton mission

Having followed the Christmas weekend by saddling a big team of runners on Tuesday, including The Glancing Queen in the Challow at Newbury, I’m afraid we are unusually light on numbers for the second half of the week.

With no runners at Sandown and Hereford set to be deep ground, it looks as if my only possible jumps runner of the weekend will be Valleres at Plumpton on Sunday. He won at Wetherby in October and has been second since at Ludlow and Sandown, where he was beaten by Evan Williams’ Challow Hurdle runner Star Gate in the Grade 2 Winter Novices’ Hurdle.

Whether he wants to go round Plumpton in heavy ground I don’t know, but we would like to get him qualified for the EBF Final at Sandown in March and so he’s entered there.