Happy Change will have a campaign geared towards a crack at next year`s Smurfit Champion Hurdle, it was revealed today.
The six-year-old is as short as 20-1 for the hurdling crown at the Cheltenham Festival despite being beaten on his only start so far over timber last October.
However, novice hurdles are out of the window for Happy Change as Thelonius, the horse that beat him that day at Uttoxeter was subsequently disqualified when found to have had a prohibited substance in his bloodstream, thus promoting Happy Change to first place.
Gelded since that run, Happy Change has been performing with great credit on the Flat this year for Mark Johnston, his best effort coming when chasing home Mutamam in the Cumberland Lodge Stakes at Ascot.
And Mark Gichero, spokesman for owners the Winning Line, confirmed that Happy Change will remain with the Middleham handler in the run-up to his Champion Hurdle bid.
'He is being given a little break now and he will stay up with Mark who will get him ready for Cheltenham - he likes a challenge!
'We definitely think he will have a big chance in the race - if you take Istabraq out it`s wide-open again and his Flat performances this year were very good, Mutamam gave the form a big boost when he was fourth in the Breeders` Cup Turf.'
Gichero also had news of some of the other Winning Line-owned horses that it could pay to follow this season.
Cardiff Arms disappointed when well-fancied for a valuable novice hurdle at Cheltenham last weekend but is apparently none the worse for his exertions.
'The ground was a bit tacky and he just didn`t act on the track,' said Gichero.
'Ultimately he will be a better horse over fences but he will be aimed at Aintree rather than Cheltenham this season.'
Ian Williams, the trainer of Cardiff Arms, has also taken charge of new arrival El Divino, an ex-German Flat performer who won a Group Two contest at Cologne last season.
'We will start him off slowly and take him through the grades but he could be a very nice horse indeed.'
Hopes are high that Crocadee can take high rank in the novice chasing field this season.
The Venetia Williams-trained seven-year-old finished a fine sixth in the Coral Cup at the Festival on his final start and has apparently schooled well for the Ross-on-Wye handler.
'We will start him off pretty soon and hope to build up a bit of a sequence with him,' Gichero reported.
'Venetia is pleased with him and he is going to give us a lot of fun this season but we will work on building up his confidence before going for the bigger races.'
Finally, Gichero nominated an even more-ambitious long-term target for recent purchase Montalcino, bought for 46,000 guineas out of Peter Makin`s stable at the sales.
'Horses like Golden Goal and Zahari have good form on the board and were bought with a view to their long-term potential, they should continue to improve.
'Damus will appreciate a step up in trip and could prove decent at around three miles but the one I really like the look of is Montalcino.
'He has gone to Venetia for the time being and he will be schooled with a view to running in some novice hurdles and see if he takes to it.
'But his real target will be the Melbourne Cup in 12 months` time.
'He will go up to Mark`s and be trained for the race - we watched him for some time and think he could turn out to be a real Cup horse and there is no better trainer of stayers than Mark.'
