Sport

Collier Bay ready for Sandown test

COLLIER BAY returned to the racecourse for the first time since he lifted the Champion Hurdle crown last March when he worked…

Thu Jan 23 1997 - 00:00

COLLIER BAY returned to the racecourse for the first time since he lifted the Champion Hurdle crown last March when he worked on grass after racing at Lingfield yesterday.

Three days after missing the AIG Europe Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown, trainer Jim Old, took advantage of the soft conditions to re unite his star with Graham Bradley for a spin round the Surrey track.

Tracking stablemate Simpson from the start at a steady pace, Collier Bay moved alongside round the final bend and stretched, clear over the final two furlongs to finish around 10 lengths in front. Provided the ground is good or softer, the champion will make his seasonal debut in the Agfa Hurdle, at Sandown a week on Saturday.

"He's alive, he's sound, no bandages. Odds on Collier Bay now?" said Old.

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"That was lovely. It was just a nice scamper round in the ground. It's the first time he has got his toe in since March 11th last year. The firm ground has been more a worry than the frost."

Collier Bay was due to make his reappearance early last month but firm ground and the abandonments of other alternatives have held him up.

As a result the Agfa may be Old's only remaining chance of running him before the Festival. "We'll have to wait and see about

Sandown. If the ground is good he will run. Let's hope we have a bit more rain. But it would not be the lend of the world if he didn't run," he added.

"So many other opportunities have been lost. I reckon there are about eight events, like the City Trial Hurdle which was run at Nottingham, which no longer exist. "

"The only one left is the Kingwell at Wincanton but that falls too close to Cheltenham."

Bradley was delighted with the "exercise. "I didn't want him to do too much in the ground which was very tacky, but that was just about perfect."

. Shakayir, wearing blinkers for the first time, held on by three parts of a length from the fast finishing Thorntoun Estate in the Bream Selling Stakes at Wolverhampton yesterday, but jockey Fergal Lynch was banned for two days (January 31st and February 1st) for using the whip with unreasonable frequency.