Coltor carrying hopes of Cheltenham success for Nick Bradley Racing
Fifth at the Boodles Fred Winter at Prestbury Park when coached by Weld in 2021, the dual-purpose six-year-old won four times for the legendary Irish handler while he was housed at Rosewell House before winning the Curragh for North Yorkshire at a prize of changed 25,000 guineas last fall.
A fact-finding mission on the plain revealed that Free Eagle’s son needed more than the two-mile minimum these days and plans were made to target either the Coral Cup or the Pertemps final at next month’s festival.
Having qualified for the longer of the two races by finishing a close second at Musselburgh recently – with Rendlesham winner Wakool back in fourth – Bradley suggests the Pertemps is the perfect place for his rare-jumping runner could be, unless conditions call for a drop in distance.
“We took him on an all-weather tour at Kempton to learn a bit and Tom Marquand rode him. He said there was no way he was a two-mile hurdler,” explained Nick Bradley Racing Managing Director.
“If you look at Ireland, they used different types of headgear, which I’m not a fan of. So we took everything off, went back to basics over two miles on the flat to get him from 85 percent to 100 percent fit so we could go to Musselburgh for the Pertemps qualifier.
“My assistant’s name is Lewis Poskitt and he deserves all the credit for discovering the race. We were thinking about Musselburgh or the Haydock race and of course we still qualified second so we didn’t have to race at Haydock.”
He continued: “It was a great run and he came through the race well and now he’s going to be put away for a run in either the Pertemps or the Coral Cup. He’ll probably go for the Pertemps, but if it’s going to be soft or heavy then it would be Coral Cup.
“The horse that finished behind us in Musselburgh won the Rendlesham and I think we have a great chance of going there.”
It wouldn’t be the first time Bradley has found success at the festival as he was responsible for buying Junior on behalf of Middleham Park Racing for £35,000 before striking out at both Royal Ascot and a whopping 24 lengths at Kim Muir, while being coached by David Pipe.
“Years ago I bought a horse called Junior who won at Royal Ascot and the Cheltenham Festival,” Bradley continued.
“He had the biggest winning margin at the festival until Tiger Roll beat him last year. He’s someone I’ve had success with before.”
Meanwhile, with the start of the flat-turf season in just over a month, Bradley and Fell are targeting Doncaster’s SBK Lincoln with another of their new recruits, Toshizou.
Formerly coached by Joseph O’Brien he has a best odds of 33-1 for the prestigious season-opening handicap and Bradley believes his odds offer real value given his best form in Ireland.
He added: “If you look at his two runs last year – the run at the start of the season was really good, he was just too far behind. Then next time he was sent off as a favorite and I thought he was going well that day but came back lame.
“We got it running in early January and are on our way to the Lincoln. At the moment he might need some help getting in but it’s a race that will cut a lot.
“He will have his first day away in about 10 days and we don’t know any performance levels or anything right now but based on the form of his first run in 2022 he was a very well handicapped horse at the time and I’ve been telling all the owners to give him a go assist a few weeks ago with 40-1 for the Lincoln. I don’t know what price he is now but he was definitely wrong price at 40-1.
“The horse has done everything right so far, but we’ll find out more in March.”