Saphir Du Rheu is set to be pitched into the Hennessy Gold Cup by trainer Paul Nicholls after Saturday’s third-placed finish at Ascot.
The impressive seven-year-old put in a decent performance at the weekend but just came up short behind Antony and Junction Fourteen in the £100,000 Sodexo Gold Cup.
However, the sixth-placed finisher in the World Hurdle at Cheltenham earlier this year, will now head to Newbury for the Gold Cup on November 26 with Nicholls hopeful for better than 12 months ago when he was the beaten favourite.
He said: “He will go straight for the Hennessy. He had a right good blow.
“I thought he ran a good race in it last year when he was fifth. He will be a bit lighter and stronger and we will have a go at it.
“He was never right last year. Nick (Scholfield) said to make more use of him and what we wanted to get him doing was jumping well. He can only build on that.”
