Racing/Gowran Preview:Gowran Park aren't messing around with appetisers today; instead, it is straight into the main course with Kicking King's second step on the road back to possible Gold Cup glory in the opening Red Mills Chase.
The 2005 blue-riband winner put in a hugely encouraging reappearance after a two-year lay-off through injury when runner-up to Nickname over two miles here last month, and he now faces five rivals in a race that in the circumstances could have been framed especially for him.
Kicking King is upped to two-and-a-half miles and will get 7lb from the other Grade One winners, Hi Cloy, One Cool Cookie and Justified. Along with Knight Legend and Ballistraw, they look to face something of a mission impossible, although Tom Taaffe is taking nothing for granted.
"This is all about trying to reach the Gold Cup on an up and this is just the latest step," Kicking King's trainer said. "We were very pleased with his run the last day and now this looks a good race to run in."
There was certainly enough in Kicking King's comeback to encourage hopes that the former double King George winner may not fall into the "they never come back" category, and Barry Geraghty even ventured the opinion that he felt as good as he did in his Gold Cup-winning pomp.
A similarly impressive, and victorious, display this afternoon will surely be enough to see bookmakers react by making the former champion the clear third-best in Gold Cup betting behind the current title holder Kauto Star and the young pretender Denman.
Some Champion Hurdle outsiders will aim to put themselves into the forefront of the Cheltenham picture in the Red Mills Centenary Trial Hurdle, and Catch Me could be the one to do best of all. Edward O'Grady's horse was a shock failure at 2 to 11 when trailing home at Thurles before Christmas but was a sick horse afterwards, and some long-held championship ambitions can be reignited now. His jockey, Andrew McNamara, will certainly know the standard required having teamed up with Sizing Europe since Catch Me's last start, and two miles on soft ground around a stiff track like Gowran should bring out the best in the O'Grady runner.
Willie Mullins is putting the finishing touches to his powerful festival squad, and although his traditional dominance of the Weatherbys Champion Bumper has not been in place so far, that could change with the racecourse debut of Apt Approach in the last.
The five-year-old is reportedly highly rated, and he could end up completing a double started by Quatre Heures in the Beginners Chase. This former Grade One winning hurdler is also entered in the Flyingbolt at Navan tomorrow, but today's task looks much easier for a horse that was coming back at Clopf in a highly encouraging debut over fences last month.
