Ascot likely to be starting point for Nickle Back

Grade One-winning novice set to mix it with the best this year.

Sarah Humphrey’s Nickle Back has the 1965 Chase at Ascot in his sights as he prepares to return to action for the new term.

The gelding came out in great form last season when winning his chasing debut at Warwick by a huge distance, after which he was a wide-margin winner again when striking at Stratford in early November.

A step up to Grade Two level followed at Newbury, where he was second in the John Francome Novices’ Chase before occupying the same spot at the same level in the Wayward Lad Novices’ Chase at Kempton.

After those runs he was the 10-1 outsider of the field for the Grade One Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase back at Sandown, but belied those odds to strike by an impressive seven lengths in a day to remember for both the stable and jockey James Best.

His final two runs of the campaign did not yield the same results as the bay was ninth in the Maghull at Aintree and then pulled up in the Josh Gifford Novices’ Handicap Chase, but he has fared well for a summer break and connections are preparing him for his first run of the new campaign.

“He’s been well, he’s summered well and we’re getting ready to go,” said Humphrey.

“We’re going to probably aim for the Nirvana Spa (1965) Chase at Ascot on November 23 as his first run.

“We’ll take it as we go, the moment you have a plan things go wrong! The Peterborough Chase is a possibility, but I’d rather go to Ascot.

“Then in January there’s the Silviniaco Chase at Kempton that could be next target, then the Betfair Ascot Chase – that would be my outline as long things go according to plan and the weather plays ball and we stay sound.”

She added: “It’s very exciting, we’re looking forward to it a lot. Last season didn’t quite go to plan towards the end, things fell apart a bit with the weather.

“It never just quite went his way, to be frank we probably shouldn’t have gone to Sandown the last time but that was the last chance he was going to get to run in a novice.

“Hopefully we will have a clearer run with the ground and the weather and everything falls into place.”

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