Aerial Cheltenham

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Aerial presents his Cheltenham credentials


Paul Nicholls looks to have a potentially smart handicap chaser on his hands in the shape of Aerial, a hugely impressive 10-length winner at Ascot recently and a horse who could well have a significant amount of improvement in him if comments from the champion trainer are anything to go by, writes Elliot Slater.

Still only a five-year-old, the son of Turgeon was a precocious sort in his native France before joining Nicholls in February where he made an immediate impression in beating Tamadot by nine-lengths in a Wincanton handicap chase off a mark of 126. After being surprisingly beaten at odds-on in a four-runner event at Ascot a few weeks later, Nicholls sent Aerial for a breathing operation and gave him the rest of the season off.

Returning at Cheltenham in mid-November and racing off a mark of 144, Aerial ran a tremendous race under Ryan Mahon to be fourth of the 20 runners behind Great Endeavour in the Paddy Power Gold Cup at Cheltenham, a performance that surprisingly persuaded the handicapper to drop him 4lbs for his latest start at Ascot where he romped home over two-and-three-quarter-miles beating Giorgio Quercus by 10-lengths and confirming himself as a horse to follow for the rest of this season.

Nicholls observed after the Ascot race that the breathing operation had made a huge difference to the horse owned jointly by Barry Fulton and Tony Hayward, now a possible candidate for the Racing Post Chase in February, and who looks the ideal sort to make a big splash in one of the Cheltenham Festival handicaps. The Festival Plate, for which he is currently on offer at 16/1), appears to fit the bill as well as any at the four-day National Hunt extravaganza.

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