Quilixios © Photo Healy Racing
Some thirteen years on from the success of the hugely popular Sizing Europe, Quilixios will bid to provide Henry de Bromhead with a second victory in the Betfair Tingle Creek on Saturday.
Sizing Europe was the reigning Queen Mother Champion Chase hero when justifying favouritism at Sandown in 2013, and while Quilixios has not yet managed to scale those heights over fences, he could hardly have been more impressive on his reappearance at Naas last month.
The 2021 Triumph Hurdle winner missed the entirety of the 2022/23 campaign through injury and results were mixed after his return last season, with wins at Limerick and Naas followed by disappointing efforts in the Arkle at Cheltenham and a Grade One at Aintree.
However, he showed his true colours when leading Marine Nationale a merry dance in the Grade Three Barberstown Castle Chase in early November, teeing him up perfectly for this weekend’s feature event.
“He seems in great form and we’re looking forward to going over,” De Bromhead said on Tuesday.
“He’s got good form on everything. I was probably a little bit concerned about the better ground at Naas the other day, but he seemed to handle that really well, and he won a good race at Naas back in January on very testing ground, so I think he’s pretty adaptable.
“I was very happy with the performance (last month). I thought he jumped great and galloped to the line well and I was delighted with him – it was great to see him back.
“He had a bit of a mixed season last year, so we wanted to see where we were. He answered all our questions really well, we hope he’ll improve for the run as well and the Tingle Creek was an obvious race to have a go at.”
Quilixios is the 11-2 second-favourite for the Tingle Creek with Betfair, who make Nicky Henderson’s defending champion Jonbon their 1-2 market leader.
De Bromhead added: “Jonbon is obviously very good and he’s going to be very hard to beat, but at least we’ll know where we stand for the rest of the season.
“I have a fondness for any of these Grade Ones, but the Tingle Creek is a famous race and we’d love to win it again.”
Quilixios is set to be joined on the trip from Ireland by the Joseph O’Brien-trained 20-1 shot Solness.
A winner over fences and hurdles already this season, the six-year-old was last seen pushing Found A Fifty close in the Fortria Chase at Navan and O’Brien is hoping for another bold showing at Sandown.
“He’s a tough horse. He’s been very consistent, he had a good run at Navan last time and I think he has a realistic chance to collect some prize money,” he said.
“He’s pretty durable, he’s won over hurdles and over fences this year. We’ll continue to mix and match it wherever he can collect some money throughout the season.
“He jumped very well last time. He was a shade unlucky, there was a bit of argy-bargy over the last and he arguably would have got even closer without that, but he was beaten a neck by a very good horse. It sets him up well for here.
“He’s very straightforward but he likes to be ridden positively. He’ll stick to two miles, we tried him over further at Clonmel and it just stretched him out a bit. A fast-run two miles with an emphasis on jumping suits him well and that’s what he might get at the weekend.
“He ran well in a Grade Two last time, it’s going to be a small field and he’s earned a crack at it.”
