Rare Edition ready to begin chasing career

Molly Hunter
October 22, 2023 3:57 pm

Charlie Longsdon has high hopes for three-time hurdles winner.

Charlie Longsdon’s Rare Edition is due to start his chasing career when the ground conditions allow.

The six-year-old was a three-time winner last season, taking a trio of novice hurdles by sizeable margins before finishing second in the Listed Sidney Banks at Huntingdon.

He was pulled up in the Supreme at the Cheltenham Festival and then finished down the field in the Top Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree.

However, a transition to chasing has since been afoot, and the gelding will make a debut over fences when the right race and the right conditions come up.

“I just don’t want to see him on very soft ground, he’s ready to go but we’re just trying to find the right race for him,” Longsdon said.

Rare Edition in the Sidney Banks Memorial Novices' Hurdle at Huntingdon — Rare Edition in the Sidney Banks Memorial Novices’ Hurdle at Huntingdon (Tim Goode/PA)

“He’ll be going over fences for the first time, so we’re just holding out to try to find the right race.

“He’s been very good, we’ve been very happy with him and we’re looking forward to getting going, to be honest.

“We’ll start out at two miles, in the future we might want to step him up but for the minute we’ll very much be keeping him at two.”

Longsdon has another chaser to follow in Guetapan Collonges, a true stayer who took two contests last term and performed with credit over marathon trips in both the Classic Chase at Warwick and Midlands Grand National at Uttoxeter.

The latter two races will be on the agenda again this season after the seven-year-old made a winning start to the term at Carlisle on Thursday.

“It’s a good starting point, then we’ll probably go and look for some of the nice staying chases as the season goes on,” the trainer said.

“There’s Haydock in November and December and there are probably quite a lot of other nice valuable chases in the coming months.

“I can easily see him going back to Warwick for the Classic Chase and going for the Midlands National, all those decent staying chases, he’ll have entries for them all.”