Sanctuaire seeks redemption

Last updated: 26th December 2012   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Sanctuaire Sandown

Sanctuaire: Looking to bounce back to winning ways

Sanctuaire will try to redeem his reputation as a top two-miler when he reappears in the williamhill.com Desert Orchid Chase at Kempton on Thursday.

The Paul Nicholls-trained six-year-old looked very smart when winning all his three races over fences in the second half of last season, culminating in the Celebration Chase at Sandown in April.

However, he was put firmly in his place by Sprinter Sacre in the Tingle Creek on his return to the Esher track three weeks ago after setting a blistering gallop to just before the third-last fence.

"No Sprinter Sacre this time. He's fine but if I had my way I'd prefer the ground to be a lot better for him, but there we are," said Nicholls.

Alan King runs Kumbeshwar, who passed a tired Sanctuaire up the Sandown hill to claim second place in the Tingle Creek.

The Venetia Williams-trained Idarah and David Pipe's His Excellency, who were fourth and fifth respectively in the Tingle Creek, reoppose.

Philip Hobbs relies on Wishfull Thinking, who benefited from the late withdrawal of Sprinter Sacre from the Shloer Chase to easily lift that Cheltenham prize last month.

The nine-year-old was only beaten three-quarters of a length by Finian's Rainbow in this race 12 months ago.