Williams relaxed about possibility of heading straight to Festival with Potters Corner

Welsh National winner was ruled out of cross-country run on Friday.

Christian Williams Williams would have no qualms about sending Potters Corner to the Cheltenham Festival without another run.

Last season’s Welsh National winner was due to run in the Glenfarclas Cross Country Handicap Chase on Friday, having finished third over the unique fences last month.

However, Williams was forced to rule him out of the race with a dirty scope and while it is not certain, he could wait until March to run his stable star again – with the Grand National in April his main aim.

“We’ll just look at the cross-country in March and the Grand National now,” said Williams.

“If he’d won on Friday he’d probably have had 10lb more to carry in the Grand National anyway.

“The way he jumped the fences in November I wouldn’t have thought he’d have needed another run over them before March – I was delighted with him from halfway.

Victory for Potters Corner sparked joyous scenes at Chepstow
Victory for Potters Corner sparked joyous scenes at Chepstow (David Davies/PA)

“Cheltenham are good to us, we gave him a little school over them the other day, which was when we found the dirty scope. We’ll probably do the same in March before the Festival.

“I don’t want to say he definitely won’t run again before March, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world if he didn’t as he could even go to Punchestown too, so there’s plenty of races at that time of year.”

He added: “It would have been nice for his owners to run, but I’m sure they won’t lose any sleep.

“What with Easysland out as well it’s unfortunate for Cheltenham as it looked a really classy race at the five-day stage.

“We take Cap Du Nord to school over the fences with him and he absolutely loves it. He might be one further down the line for these races.”

Follow us on Twitter racing365dotcom and like our Facebook page.
Cheltenham Potters Corner

Latest