Aura tops Kim Bailey’s strongest ever Festival team
Ryanair contender is Cheltenham lynchpin for Cotswolds trainer.
Imperial Aura will lead what Kim Bailey believes is “undoubtedly” his strongest ever team into battle at this year’s Cheltenham Festival. Twenty-six years on from completing the Champion Hurdle-Cheltenham Gold Cup double with Alderbrook and Master Oats, the Cotswolds trainer is excited about his chances of adding to his tally at the showpiece event of the season. “In that big year I had, I had a horse called Simple Arithmetic, who we thought would win the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and finished third, and a couple of horses run in handicaps,” said Bailey. “I’ve never been one for running horses at Cheltenham unless they had a reason for going there.“This year is undoubtedly my strongest team, (and) Imperial Aura was always going to be at the front of the house. “We’ve been steadily building up towards this. It’s great that it’s coming to fruition – and now they’ve got to try to prove a point.” Bailey’s Festival team were put through their paces on Wednesday morning, and the trainer was relieved to report all came through with flying colours. He said: “We’ve had a very successful morning. We worked all the horses this morning and schooled them all in thick fog. The great thing about working horses in the fog is they always work five times better than they do normally, because none of us can see them!
Vinndication leading Imperial Aura @Imperial_Racing @CheltenhamRaces @Ascot #teamthorndale #teamdandh @DodsonHorrell pic.twitter.com/ckr0qDSsf3
— Kim Bailey (@kimbaileyracing) October 11, 2020
Sky’s the limit for @kimbaileyracing, David Bass, Mr A N Solomons and FIRST FLOW 🙌@TeamMatchbook pic.twitter.com/P6EogTIhui
— Ascot Racecourse (@Ascot) January 23, 2021
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