Olly Murphy looking foward to a big weekend

Thomas Darby will be in veterans’ chase action at Warwick.

Stable stalwart Thomas Darby spearheads Olly Murphy’s bumper squad of horses on Saturday afternoon, with the trainer poised to saddle key runners across the country.

The 11-year-old is part of the furniture at Murphy’s Warren Chase base and was one of the horses who helped put the trainer on the map when finishing second in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle in 2019.

Since then the seven-time winner has been a regular on the big days and counts victory in Newbury’s Long Distance Hurdle as one of his greatest accolades.

He will now seek another major prize in the rearranged Unibet Veterans’ Handicap Chase at Warwick, returning to the scene of his comfortable course-and-distance success in November.

“He’s in good form and obviously he’s off a lofty mark now but he has course-and-distance form round Warwick and seems in good order,” said Murphy.

“He was second in a Supreme behind Klassical Dream and has had success at a high level throughout his career.

“He has been a very good horse, just probably 7lb short of being a proper Grade One horse. But we’ve had some very good days. He’s won a Long Distance Hurdle at Newbury and he’s run well on many occasions at the highest level so to win a nice handicap like this would be great.

“Harry Skelton rides him and if he gets into a good rhythm I don’t see why he wouldn’t have a good each-way chance in a valuable race.”

Sporting the same silks of owner Diana Whateley is Chasing Fire who has always threatened to be a quality operator and is upped in class at Wetherby for a shot at the Grade Two William Hill Towton Novices’ Chase.

“He definitely runs at Wetherby and is in good form,” continued Murphy.

“He’s a horse that hasn’t achieved what I think he should have achieved yet, but it is still really early days for him.

“It will be a competitive race, but we’re looking forward to it and Brian Hughes rides him.”

Meanwhile, Thunder Rock could be tasked with a stiff-looking recovery mission if taking his chance in Kempton’s Coral Silviniaco Conti Chase.

The eight-year-old fluffed his lines when sent off favourite for Cheltenham’s December Gold Cup prior to Christmas and with Murphy toying with the idea of reverting to hurdles, is keen to give his charge another chance to prove himself over fences back in a small-field contest.

“We’re short of options and running him back in a handicap is probably not the right thing to do with him at the moment,” explained Murphy.

“We would rather run in a smaller-field Graded race if possible, but options are far and few between.

“He’s in good form, he just got a terrible fright at Cheltenham last time. If he runs it will be very much a confidence boosting run.

“Unfortunately I think he’s rather well-handicapped but we’re not able to put that to good use just yet. He’ll have a run back over fences whether that is Saturday or not and see how we go, and if it doesn’t work out we’ll go back over hurdles.”

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