Ground to dictate the Cheltenham Festival target for L'Homme Presse

Venetia Williams insists L'Homme Presse will have no problem stepping up to three miles for the first time should he go for the Brown Advisory Novices' Chase, with the ground set to be the crucial factor in deciding her stable star's Cheltenham Festival target.

The seven-year-old has been one of the revelations of the season since going over fences and recorded a first Grade 1 success when a dominant winner of the Scilly Isles Novices' Chase last month, and had been viewed as the leading British contender for the Turners Novices' Chase over two and a half miles.

Despite winning the Dipper at Cheltenham on New Year's Day on soft ground, three of L'Homme Presse's four chase wins have come on good to soft and Williams will let conditions dictate if he tackles three miles for the first time in the Brown Advisory instead, for which he is a 5-1 chance.

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The trainer said: "The door to go three miles has always been open ever since the entries went in. His part-owner Andy Edwards has said from the beginning that the going will make the decision.

"He won the Dipper over the same course as the Turners, which is half a furlong shorter. The last thing it looked like he was looking for when he finished off that race was going shorter."

Bob Olinger, Galopin Des Champs, Bravemansgame and Ahoy Senor are among those in the mix for the Grade 1 staying novice chases at the festival, but Williams is unfazed by whoever lies in store.

Venetia Williams (right): 'The last thing it looked like he was looking for when he finished off that race was going shorter.'Credit: Edward Whitaker

"It will be a decision based on the ground and you're going to have a look at the Irish horses, but there are strong Irish horses in all of the races," she said. "If you run away from one, you run into something else.

"L'Homme Presse does look like a three-miler and if he doesn't go up to three miles this month you can be sure he'll be hitting it next season."

Williams' stable has been hit by a bug, but the Herefordshire-based trainer reported that L'Homme Presse and her other leading festival lights, including Royale Pagaille, have escaped a dirty nose so far.

She said: "The four or five bigger names for Cheltenham are, so far, clear of it, but there are some we might have run in the handicaps that we can't."

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