Nicholls reveals Cliffs of Dover plan

Paul Nicholls is lining up an outing at the Scottish Champion Hurdle for Cliffs of Dover on the back of a second race win on the Flat.

The Ditcheat trainer has been impressed with the five-year-old’s progress after he missed all of last season because of injury.

Unsuitable conditions hindered Cliffs of Dover on his comeback in the Kingwell Hurdle at Wincanton, but he got back to winning ways at Lingfield on March 7 and then secured a second win at the same course in the Betway Stayers Handicap on Monday afternoon.

Nicholls is now looking ahead and seems to favour the Scottish Champion Hurdle at Ayr over a trip to Aintree, although he stressed that the ground conditions will play a big part in his decision-making.

He said: “He just keeps progressing.

“We’re desperate to run him over hurdles again, but he must have better ground.

“We just thought with the ground still as it is we’d run him in another Flat race to keep his fitness up.

“Once the ground comes good he’ll probably have an entry in the Scottish Champion Hurdle, races like that.

“He was obviously well handicapped last time and this race was ideal to enable him to keep progressing.”

Nicholls added: “There’s nothing really for him at Aintree as the only one I can see is over two and a half miles for conditional jockeys on the last day and I’m not sure he wants to be going that far yet.

“He might get an entry, but there’s Ayr and the Swinton Hurdle, too. The most important thing is good ground.”