Trainer George Charlton says Knockara Beau would not be a forlorn hope in the Cheltenham Gold Cup at the Festival next month.
Northern stalwart could bid for Gold at the Festival
George Charlton believes Knockara Beau would not be a forlorn hope should he line up for the Betfred Cheltenham Gold Cup.
The nine-year-old has not disgraced himself at the last three Festivals, finishing fifth in the Ballymore Properties Novices' Hurdle and fourth in both the RSA Chase and Pertemps Handicap Hurdle Final.
And the Northumberland trainer could well be tempted to run his stable star in the biggest prize of all, especially if one or two of the high-profile horses do not get there on the day.
The Festival Handicap Chase is the other option for Knockara Beau, who showed his well-being when taking second place behind crack novice Simonsig in the Morebattle Hurdle at Kelso last week.
"He's fine. It was just a canter round for him," said Charlton.
"He was only beaten by that one of Nicky Henderson's (Simonsig) but we knew he'd be hard to beat. He still had some good horses behind him.
"He'll run at Cheltenham, but we haven't finalised the race yet.
Options
"There's the three-mile handicap chase and he's in the Gold Cup. I'm just waiting to see if some of the good ones come out.
"Everyone's pushing hard to get to Cheltenham and there's good prize-money in the Gold Cup down to sixth.
"If he runs on well up that hill over that last furlong he might get into third or fourth, you never know. In the back of my mind it could be the Gold Cup for him.
"It's just a case of keeping an eye on the press about which horses are out and what's going well and what isn't. The main thing is our horse is all right.
"He'll need a fair bit of work as the aim is to get him 100% for Cheltenham and we're just gearing towards it. That was just a gallop the other day.
"He's now won £148,500, so he's not done bad."
Knockara Beau is as big as 200-1 for the Gold Cup on March 16.
