Fairyhouse aim for Chatham Street Lad

Chaser set to have numerous Cheltenham options.

Chatham Street Lad is on target for the Dan & Joan Moore Memorial Handicap Steeplechase at Fairyhouse on January 18.

The Mick Winters-trained eight-year-old turned the Caspian Caviar Gold Cup at Cheltenham into a procession last month.

He will now drop down in trip for the two-mile-one-furlong contest and will have several entries at the Cheltenham Festival.

“His owners take a real interest in the racing and go to a lot of trouble picking out the right races,” said Winters on Monday.

“I probably wouldn’t have considered the Cheltenham race so I’m happy to roll along with them and go to Fairyhouse.

“He’s in super form, he’s at the peak of his career you could say. He did a piece of work this morning, I know the lass on him was light, but he was flying along.

“It was two and a half (miles) last time and it means coming back in trip, but I don’t think it’s a big thing. The thing about coming back in trip is we might find out he’s a Champion Chase-type and then you meet a different calibre.

“He’s a big, strong horse. I’ve had a lot of point-to-pointers through the yard, but this one stands out.

“He’s very happy in himself so we’ll try to keep him together until then.”

Given Chatham Street Lad is still a novice he is likely to have plenty of options come March.

“I think the owners are going to spend a bit of money when it comes to Cheltenham and cover all options like the Champion Chase, Ryanair and the handicaps and he’s still a novice you see,” said Winters.

“Looking at the novices over Christmas you have Shishkin, Envoi Allen and Paul Nolan’s horse (Latest Exhibition) that we might come up against, so we’ll have to work it out.

“The big, galloping tracks suit him and if you had a choice of going left or right with him you’d go left.”

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