Dublin Racing Festival weekend will offer further pointers for Il Est Francais team
© Photo Healy Racing
Noel George will be a keen observer of the Dublin Racing Festival this weekend, as he continues to deliberate over the Cheltenham Festival destination for his star chaser Il Est Francais.
Buoyed by the seven-year-old’s gallant front-running second to Banbridge in the King George VI Chase on Boxing Day, the Chantilly-trained gelding was handed entries for all three championship races over fences at National Hunt racing’s showpiece event.
George is tentatively leaning towards a drop back to the minimum distance to take on the challenge of topping Jonbon in the Queen Mother Champion Chase.
However, the action at Leopardstown this weekend – which sees the likes of Willie Mullins’ Gold Cup favourite Galopin Des Champs and Closutton stablemates Fact To File and Champion Chase hopeful Gaelic Warrior in action – could go some way to firming up Festival running plans in George’s mind.
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“He’s absolutely flying and it’s the best he has come out of a race in a long time, he’s got a lot of confidence out of that Kempton run and everything was perfect afterwards,” said George, who trains Il Est Francais alongside Amanda Zetterholm.
“I think we have just got to watch Dublin at the weekend to work out where we’re going to run and obviously the ground at the Festival will play a part as well, but the horse is in great form.
“We are very much considering the Champion Chase, but we just need to see what is going on with the Ryanair field – and then if it came up good ground on Gold Cup day, you would also have to consider that and what opposition was turning up.
“There’s a lot of factors to be discussed and considered, but the horse is in fine form and that’s the main thing.”
He added: “It’s the dream to have big winners in England as well as France and we’re trying to put French racing on the map. There’s some exciting French-trained horses coming to the Festival, not just with us, but others as well, so it’s an exciting time.”