Wichita aimed at four-miler

Novice being line-up for another Festival raid

By Gareth Topham   Last updated: 9th January 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

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Wichita Lineman

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Jonjo O'Neill hopes Wichita Lineman can complete his Cheltenham Festival preparations at Carlisle on Sunday.

The eight-year-old, who won the Brit Insurance Hurdle at the Festival in 2007, is due to run in the Azure Catering Novices' Chase at the Cumbrian track - if the meeting survives the cold snap.

Wichita Lineman has made a promising start to his career over fences, winning twice at Chepstow and being beaten by Lodge Lane at Exeter.

"He has taken well to chasing - he hasn't had a bad run," the trainer told sportinglife.com. "He won at Chepstow first time and then he ran very well behind a good horse of Victor Dartnall's at Exeter.

"Then he came back and won again at Chepstow so he's done nothing wrong. He's in great form."

O'Neill is targeting the four-mile National Hunt Chase at the Cheltenham Festival for his charge.

"He stays really well and he jumps pretty well. He travels better in a long-distance race than he does in a short-distance race so I think the four-miler is the way to go with him," the trainer added.

"He's entered this weekend at Carlisle, and hopefully he'll go there but if that doesn't happen then we'll try and find a race between now and Cheltenham."