Captain Teague and Harry Cobden© Photo Healy Racing
Paul Nicholls’ highly-regarded Captain Teague was the beneficiary of a walkover at Exeter after his two declared rivals were pulled out of the ICL Conscious Of Our Impact ‘Future Stars’ Silver Bowl Novices’ Chase on account of the ground.
On going officially described as good, Dan Skelton withdrew his scheduled remaining runners on the card – bar Etalon in the Haldon Gold Cup – after his runner in the opener, Jack Black, was pulled up.
Skelton was due to run Grade Two novice hurdle winner Deafening Silence against Captain Teague, but he was among the withdrawals and while it looked as if Sue Gardner’s Daring Plan would take his chance, he failed to appear in the paddock and was subsequently withdrawn.
“We were waiting for the other horse to come in, but it’s a bizarre situation,” Nicholls told ITV Racing.
“Sue thinks the ground is fast enough, I’d say the chase track might be slippery which is my concern, I thought they were slipping in the first over hurdles as it’s mizzly (on top of good ground).
“It’s no one’s fault, it’s just the weather. We had all that rain a few weeks ago then it has just dried up. Exeter is not a track that is easy to water.
“Welfare of the horses is the big issue and Sue obviously feels it is the right thing, and so does Dan, not to run theirs today.
“We’ve got a walkover but we haven’t learned anything so it saves him for another day.”
Nicholls stressed he could understand the decisions of his fellow trainers, and admitted the ground was quick enough.
He said: “You can’t take any chances, to be honest I’d say it was borderline whether it is safe enough on the chase track, it is probably good to firm. If you’ve a horse who wants a bit of cut you are probably not going to run.
“We were prepared to take a chance because we want some experience, but now we’ll have to go back to the drawing board and find somewhere else.
“A two-runner novice chase would have been difficult in any case, you’d much rather run in a bigger field as anything can go wrong. He’s safe and sound and can go another day.
“He’s one of our better ones, he’s won a Grade One. We started him early last year and he didn’t last the season and I’m determined this year not to give him too hard a time so he lasts until the spring.
“Everybody at home will be disappointed there’s no race but we have to be careful. We all want to run when we can but it’s frustrating at the moment, you can’t change the weather.”
Like Nicholls, Skelton was not critical of the course, instead blaming the weather.
“You’ve got to deal with facts, not emotions, it is no one’s fault, it’s not like the clerk has overwatered – it’s just the weather and it’s highly frustrating,” said Skelton.
“I’m sure there’ll be lots of comments about how embarrassing it is, but it is driven into us from every angle about welfare so if you don’t think you are doing the right thing you have to act appropriately. It would be a lot more embarrassing if we were running horses and they were getting injured.
“It will change, it’s the UK, it will rain and it probably won’t stop when it does. I wish we could put on a more appetising show but we can’t beat the weather.”
Earlier Nicholls saw the promising Sorceleur justify 1-4 favouritism in the goskydive.com Novices’ Hurdle.
Nicholls said: “We knew he would come on for that first run and that bit of experience. He has jumped very well. He was quite novicey when we first started with him so I was pleased with that.
“He wasn’t good enough the first time out, simple as. We just need to find somewhere else to give him more experience and get him handicapped as he is a big green horse.
“He is a nice little horse and he is in at Wincanton tomorrow. It is a £15,000 race and it wouldn’t be the biggest surprise if we did that.”
He added: “He just wasn’t a natural to jump to begin with but he was really good today, he made the running and what I loved was he (Harry Cobden) couldn’t pull him up.
