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Dublin Racing Festival

No easy task for Footpad at Leopardstown while Sceau Royal lays in wait

Footpad will be looking to make it two Leopardstown Grade 1s in the Frank Ward Solicitors Arkle Chase on Saturday
Footpad will be looking to make it two Leopardstown Grade 1s in the Frank Ward Solicitors Arkle Chase on SaturdayCredit: Patrick McCann / (racingpost.com/photos)

While owners Simon Munir and Isaac Souede continue to have a season to remember in Britain and Ireland, they believe star performer Footpad faces a real test of his growing reputation in next Saturday's Frank Ward Solicitors Arkle Novice Chase.

The Willie Mullins-trained six-year-old has impressed with his accurate jumping in two starts over fences and is odds-on to claim the Irish version of the two mile novice championship before venturing on to Cheltenham.

Owners' representative Anthony Bromley confirmed the Racing Post Arkle would be the festival target for Saturday's Doncaster Grade 2 winner Sceau Royal and that, should all go well at Leopardstown, Footpad was likely to join him, rather than the pair be kept apart at Cheltenham.

"Footpad is entered in the Arkle and the JLT [at Cheltenham] but the plan is to go for the Arkle," said Bromley on Sunday, before warning that the Henry de Bromhead-trained Petit Mouchoir – an easy winner on his only chasing start at Punchestown in October – will provide a proper benchmark of Footpad's abilities.

"He has to get through Saturday first and beat Petit Mouchoir, which will be no easy feat. When they last met Petit Mouchoir finished ahead of him in the Champion Hurdle so it’s not as easy as the betting suggests."

Reflecting on Sceau Royal's success in the Napoleons Casino and Restaurant Owlerton Sheffield Lightning Novices' Chase, Bromley observed there could be more to come from last season's Champion Hurdle sixth.

"By Alan King's admission Sceau Royal wasn’t 100 per cent wound up for that race and Alan now has 45 days to put the finishing touches on him," said Bromley.

"The second [Shantou Rock] is a decent horse and we gave him 6lb. I had Sceau Royal running to about 156 and if there is a little bit of improvement through fitness that puts him right in the shake-up in the Arkle and he goes there with a great chance."

Footpad finished two places and just under three lengths in front of Sceau Royal in the 2017 Champion Hurdle and Bromley says that Munir and Souede would have no problem pitching them against one another in the Racing Post Arkle.

"If the trainers want to go for the same race and it’s the right race then they’ll both go," said Bromley. "There’s no owners orders and we’ve always been clear about that."


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Scott BurtonFrance correspondent

Published on 28 January 2018inDublin Racing Festival

Last updated 16:00, 29 January 2018

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