Yahoo Finance Star chaser Altior to make reappearance in Tingle Creek at Sandown
Altior, who has been beaten just once in 21 starts over obstacles but was prevented from defending his Champion Chase title last March because of a splint problem, is odds-on with the sponsors for the Betfair Tingle creek Chase at Sandown on Saturday.
It was the prospect of seeing Altior, now riding 11, on his reappearance in a race he won on the only occasion he ran in it, in 2018, which saw Sandown’s allocation of tickets for spectators sell out in 17 minutes last week.
He could face seven opponents including the Paul Nicholls pair Politologue, who won the Champion Chase in Altior’s absence last spring, and Greaneteen, fourth in the Grand Annual but winner of the Haldon Gold Cup last month.
Harry Skelton will renew his partnership with Politologue for family friend John Hales while Harry Cobden, who returns to action today after receiving a kick in the leg at Newbury on Saturday, rides Greaneteen. The trainer is looking for an 11th win in the race.
One horse stepping up from handicaps to see if he can mix it with the big boys is Harry Whittington’s Rouge Vif, a non-runner in the Shloer when it came up soft. “Altior is still unbeaten over two miles,” pointed out his trainer.
“We need everything in our favour including the ground and if it were to go soft we might give it a swerve and go to Kempton instead but, at the moment, the plan is to run.”
One horse missing from the line-up is Defi Du Seuil, last year’s winner. Connections are still getting to the bottom of why he ran below par in both the Champion Chase and, on his reappearance, in the Shloer Chase at Cheltenham.
At Aintree where the National fences will, belatedly, be jumped for the first time in 2020 last year’s first and second, Walk In The Mill and Kimberlite Candy, re-oppose in the William Hill Becher Chase.
