Connections have revealed that Alan King’s Yanworth will go to the Stayers’ Hurdle in this year’s Cheltenham festival.
The 8-year-old had also held an entry for the JLT but he’ll go back over hurdles after his transition to chasing this term was deemed to have been less than satisfactory for those purposes.
JP McManus' racing manager Frank Berry explained the move: "We just thought his jumping hadn't been the slickest but we're not saying he won't go back over fences, maybe even later this spring, we'll just see how he gets on here first.
"He'll be taken out of the novice chases (at Cheltenham), though, and will definitely run in the Stayers'.
"He was in the Stayers' and we just thought it was an opportunity to go down that road."
He’ll surely have a live chance in the race considering he beat well-supported favourite Supersundae in the Liverpool Hurdle at Aintree last year. He’s been marked up at a price of 5/1, which makes him the market's third favourite.
“Later in the season he'll have all the options," he added.
This switch back to the smaller obstacles for Yanworth might just be a temporary one, then.
In other Cheltenham Festival news, jockey Robbie Power has confirmed he will retain the ride on last year’s Gold Cup winner Sizing John in this year’s rendition of the race rather than ride Our Duke.
Speaking to the Racing Post, he said: “It was virtually impossible to get off a Gold Cup winner. Imagine the egg on my face if Sizing John won it again and I wasn't on him. I would look very stupid, wouldn't I? That would be very hard to take.”
