Cheltenham Festival News: Owners want Brown Advisory for Paul Nicholls' Threeunderthrufive
threeunderthrufive
Leading novice chaser Threeunderthrufive has plenty of Cheltenham options for Paul Nicholls. Connections of the McNeill family are leaning towards the three mile Brown Advisory Novices' Chase.
The Brown Advisory Novices' Chase at the Cheltenham Festival looks like the route for Threeunderthrufive with connections looking to take advantage of his novice status.
Paul Nicholls' Threeunderthrufive, owned by Max McNeill, has been beaten only once since taking to fences.
A November Cheltenham win was followed by Threeunderthrufive taking two Grade 2 races in the December Novices' Chase at Doncaster and the Hampton Novices' Chase at Warwick, both over three miles.
Threeunderthrufive has three Festival entries but the McNeill family are leaning towards another three miles run in the Brown Advisory.
"The Brown Advisory would be our preferred option, there's a few reasons for that; Adrian can obviously ride, and secondly last season with Escaria Ten we went for the so-called easier option with the National Hunt Chase and we ran into Galvin, who is the favourite for the Gold Cup," said Iain Turner, racing manager to the McNeill family who own both Threeunderthrufive and Escaria Ten.
"Just because a race looks easier at the time, it doesn't always mean it works out like that.
"He's won two Grade 2s, one with a penalty, and this might be his only chance to run in a Grade 1.
"Hopefully it's not, but it might be and if he shows he's not up to that class and perhaps we should have gone further we can drop him back into handicap company for something like the bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown at the end of the season."
Nicholls has one of the leading fancies in the Brown Advisory with Bravemansgame, a horse unbeaten over fences and already a Grade 1 winner after taking the Kauto Star at Kempton Park on Boxing Day.
While the champion trainer could understandably prefer to keep the two horses apart, those linked with Threeunderthrufive are more inclined to take their only available shot at the race rather than risk crossing paths with high-calibre horses in a lesser-grade event.
"Paul would probably rather keep Bravemansgame and Threeunderthrufove apart and he probably would look at something like the National Hunt Chase for him, but we've not sat down and discussed it," he said.
"One thing for sure is that he can only run in a Brown Advisory once, and from those horses at the top of the market he is the only one that has won around Cheltenham."
