Harry Fry faces Gin Coco poser

PA Sport Reporters
November 9, 2022 12:58 pm

Promising hurdler has options in novice and handicap company.

Harry Fry plans to make a late call on whether Gin Coco will contest the Unibet Greatwood Hurdle or the Sky Bet Supreme Trial at Cheltenham on Sunday.

An impressive winner at Fontwell in March before finishing second at the Punchestown Festival, the six-year-old made a successful reappearance at Newton Abbot last month.

He has the option of entering the handicap sphere for the first time in the Greatwood, for which he is a best priced 12-1, but the fact he remains a novice until the end of November means he does have an alternative option this weekend.

“We’re very much hoping we’ll see Gin Coco at Cheltenham on Sunday. He’s actually got two options and we’ve given ourselves a nice headache deciding which is the right race to run in,” Fry told Sky Sports Racing.

Trainer Harry Fry at the Cheltenham Festival (Tim Goode/PA)

“He’s in good form and Newton Abbot set him up nicely for this weekend. We’ll be having a discussion with the owners in the next day or so and figure out which race to have a crack at.

“The horses in the Supreme Trial are more unexposed potentially, but it’s our last chance to run in a good novice, so we’ve got to weigh that up.”

Fry is bidding for further big-race success this weekend after high-class hurdler Metier successfully reverted to the Flat in last Saturday’s November Handicap in the mud at Doncaster.

When and where he will return to the jumping game will depend on ground conditions.

Big Flat win for @HarryFryRacing1! Metier and @OsborneSaffie win the @Goodwin_Racing November Handicap at @DoncasterRaces… pic.twitter.com/nI1TSCaMRr
— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) November 5, 2022

Fry added: “It was always something we were keen to do, run him back on the Flat, and we’re still a way off running in his conditions over jumps, so we just felt ‘why not’ (run at Doncaster)?

“We were delighted to see him run so well and win it, which was a real bonus. We were going there with no pressure and no expectations, so to see him do as well as he did was fantastic.

“He’s come out of the race in good form and it sets him up nicely for the winter campaign. We now need to bide our time to see where we’re going to get conditions in order to run him over hurdles.

“We’d like to go back to Lingfield in January for the Winter Million card, where he was successful last year. This side of Christmas there’s a race at Sandown at the start of December and you’ve got the valuable handicap hurdle at Ascot that he was fourth in last year.

“I think either of those two races will be where we’ll look to go with him and then back to Lingfield.”

Love Envoi enjoyed an excellent season last term (John Walton/PA)

The Dorset handler also provided positive updates on his Cheltenham Festival heroine Love Envoi and the promising Might I, who bumped into several top-class performers as a novice hurdler last season and is poised to return in the Betfair Exchange Stayers’ Handicap Hurdle at Haydock on Saturday week.

Of Might I, Fry said: “We’re very happy with where he is. We decided not to go down the Greatwood route with him and we’ll look to try him up in trip at Haydock.

“I can’t believe I only won one race with him last year, but we did have the misfortune, or bad placement on my part, of bumping into Constitution Hill, then Jonbon and then we were runner-up in a Grade One at Aintree.

“We’re hoping there’s more to come from him. He’s a second-season hurdler and being a half-brother to Stattler, who won the National Hunt Chase last season, we feel he’s worth a try at the longer distance.

“Love Envoi is probably a couple of weeks from getting started, but she’s in good form. She had a slight setback in the autumn, but that’s fully behind her.

“There’s not too many mares only options this side of Christmas, but there’s a lovely programme from January onwards leading into the Cheltenham Festival. All being well we’ll end up back there and have a go at the Mares’ Hurdle.

“There’s the Coral Hurdle at Ascot next weekend. Whether that’s coming soon enough and whether we get her conditions is another matter.

“You’ve got the Gerry Feilden (at Newbury), Sandown and there’s the International (at Cheltenham), but obviously they’re good races and we’ll be taking on boys.

“We’re just going to play it by ear, she’ll tell us when she’s ready and we’ll go where conditions suit.”