'He's a better horse now' - evergreen Sceau Royal lands third Elite Hurdle

Saturday: Unibet Elite Hurdle, Wincanton

Sceau Royal became the first horse in history to land the Elite Hurdle three times but this could be only the start of a big season, with trainer Alan King "convinced" the nine-year-old is better than he has ever been.

It was a repeat of last season's 1-2 with Simon Munir and Issac Souede's Sceau Royal holding off Teqany in the Grade 2. The winning margin dropped from seven and a half lengths to five and a half yet it was an impressive enough performance once again from this admirable performer on his 40th start.

Sixteen of those have been successful and seven include Graded-winning performances yet, interestingly, some impressive homework has King particularly excited for the rest of the season.

"He does the talking," King said. "He's a superstar. He's now won it as a four-year-old, eight-year-old and a nine-year-old, so what the hell was I doing in between?

"He's as good as ever, I'm convinced he is, if not slightly better. His homework is certainly better than it was two years ago, he's a better horse than he was then.

"We know how to properly train him now and he's in a good place. He was never a brilliant work horse but he's now working as well as ever. He's definitely better."

His task was made easier when Goshen, 9-4 second favourite, was taken out due to the ground. Yet he was evergreen in the double green under Daryl Jacob and connections are left with an interesting decision as to where to go next.

"I don't know," King replied when asked. "We'll speak to Brommers [Anthony Bromley]. We can stay down over the hurdles route but the one thing he won't do is go right-handed over a fence.

"He's a bit left over hurdles, you get away with it, but not in a chase. Chasing would have to be left-handed."

Potterman also repeated his same placing on this day, with another second-place effort in the Badger Beer Handicap Chase. The Ladbrokes Trophy is his big target for the season, and he was cut to 12-1 (from 20) with Betway after a fine prep run.

King said: "I'm delighted. He was so late in and I didn't think we'd get a run into him. I thought he'd get tired turning in. The Ladbrokes Trophy is ground dependant but it's three weeks away, which is ideal."

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