Sport

See More Business to head field

The reigning Tote Cheltenham Gold Cup winner See More Business heads a field of 12 horses standing their ground in the £110,000…

Tue Dec 21 1999 - 00:00

The reigning Tote Cheltenham Gold Cup winner See More Business heads a field of 12 horses standing their ground in the £110,000 King George VI Chase at Kempton next Monday.

See More Business, who took this prize two years ago, will bid to become the first horse since Desert Orchid in 1988 to regain the mid-season championship.

Paul Nicholls also confirmed Double Thriller yesterday but he has withdrawn last year's runnerup Escartefigue.

The Shepton Mallet trainer reported yesterday his two entries - See More Business and Double Thriller - are in good form.

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He said: "Both horses are well - nothing has changed since the weekend. They both cantered out as usual this morning.

"See More Business will definitely run unless it is a bog and I won't walk the course until an hour before the race. Double Thriller goes on any ground."

Nicholls added that See More Business was likely to be fitted with the blinkers that he has worn successfully in his last two races. Noel Chance is happy with his horses, Looks Like Trouble and Boardroom Shuffle, in the build-up to the big race.

He said: "There preparation has been excellent - not a problem. They are both in good shape.

"Norman (Williamson) will be on Looks Like Trouble and Leighton Aspell will ride Boardroom Shuffle."

Of Boardroom Shuffle, who was moved to his Lambourn stable at the beginning of the season, Chance added: "We put him in the race because of the chance of it cutting up into seven or eight runners. I won't decide if he runs until Thursday, but if that does happen then we'll take our chance."

Chance is not too concerned about the prospect of very soft going at Kempton.

"We always thought it might be a problem for Looks Like Trouble but we galloped him at Newbury one day on horrible ground and he handled it very well, travelling well on it," said the Lambourn trainer. "So I'm not worried too much about it."

KING GEORGE VI CHASE

BETTING: (Ladbrokes): 7-4 See More Business, 2-1 Looks Like Trouble, 6-1 Go Ballistic, 71 Double Thriller, 9-1 Dorans Pride, 14-1 Dr Leunt, 20-1 Mulligan, Strong Promise, 25-1 Challenger du Luc, 33-1 Djeddah, 50-1 Boardroom Shuffle, Tremallt.