Coneygree - King George or Lexus?

During the build up to the Hennessey the Bradstocks definitely seemed to favour the Lexus with their comments in the media but noticed this interview with Lady Oaksey the other day talked about skipping both the Lexus and King George http://www.skysports.com/racing/news/12040/10086879/coneygrees-main-aim-is-cheltenham-gold-cup

Surprised if they go anywhere; doesn't sound like his preparation is going to plan at present and they certainly won't rush him.

After Xmas is the word.

Imagine Don Cossack swerves the King George and takes in the Lexus instead against Coneygree, and Vautour finishes behind Cue Card and Silviniaco Conti in the King George - the betting picture will be significantly clearer for the Gold Cup then.

Impossible it is possible that DC runs in the Lexus but the other scenario is near impossible.

SCINTILATING Gold Cup winner Coneygree is "absolutely on track" to return to action over Christmas having overcome a setback that forced him to miss last month's Hennessy at Newbury.

Having made a winning reappearance in the Listed Future Stars Chase at Sandown on November 8, the eight-year-old, owned by The Max Partnership and trained by Mark Bradstock, missed out on the Hennessy Gold Cup on November 28 with a bruised foot and tweaked muscle in his quarters after spreading a plate in the build-up.

However, buoyed by his recovery so far, connections are optimistic that he will return to action in either the William Hill King George VI Chase at Kempton on December 26, for which he would need to be supplemented, or the Lexus Chase at Leopardstown two days later.

'In very good nick'

Speaking on Wednesday, assistant trainer Sara Bradstock told the Racing Post: "He's absolutely on track but we haven't worked him yet. He's had a lot of physio and he's in very good nick.

"He's back cantering and he'll work on Saturday or Sunday and we'll see how much fitness he's lost, but it shouldn't have been much. We've got a couple of weeks anyway now. I said to the owners that if everything went smoothly than he should be fine [to run over Christmas]."

On a preferred Christmas target, Bradstock said: "The main factor will be what runs, what Willie Mullins is doing, and what the Irish are doing, because they seem to have all the best horses bar us.

"I know that Don Cossack is definitely going to Kempton. Vautour jumped so badly left at Ascot you would think he'd want to go left handed, and certainly on that run you wouldn't mind taking him on."

I certainly would not risk sending a horse across the Irish Sea over the holiday period. Weather, delays, stress on a horse that has not travelled before, never mind finding staff to miss Xmas at home. Mind you if Kempton is really heavy as it can be, I would be careful not to wreck a horse there either. There is always the Cotswold chase.

great stuff,happy Boxing Day lads!!

Ha ha,
We don't want that to happen, Vautour is the most  intriguing part of the KG for me, we have a potential classic on our hands.
Coneygree,Don Cossack,Vautour,Cue Card and Conti.

Tell him to close his mouth, put up the 10 grand entry fee for the King George then talk about it. Otherwise cut the cr@p.

These connections are lethal to antepost punters, shame as love the horse.

Lets not forget his Cheltenham target last year which depended apparently on the ground as to whether it was RSA or Gold Cup.

The ground was as they specified for him to go RSA yet he went for the Gold Cup. Turns out the ground had fkall to do with it really. Total bullsh:::::ers dont listen to a word they say now just wait for him to turn up. Not an antepost proposition now due o connections hogwash.

Eric,
The going for the RSA was good,the forecast for the Friday was rain,and that's what happened,we had a soft ground Gold Cup.
Coneygree likes soft.

As for what's happening at the moment,the media are wanting to know about the horse,and the Bradstocks as far as I can see are trying to keep them updated.
None of this is secretive or rubbish,just don't back anything till a firm decision is made is my view.

Not good news at all. Hopefully just a bad rumour but signs are not good with it being friendless on here and one of the first tweets I can see about the injury are from Paul Jones that used to do the Wetherby's book.

I predicted the horse was off his game yesterday lunchtime when I posted on the KG  ante-post thread. The trainer was delaying a decision on Christmas plans and the backers of the horse on betfair were being hoovered up.
It's a proper shame. Note the trainer's assistant said on Monday that punters don't know which end of a horse eats and which end sh!ts. We do know which end she bullsh!ts though!

There is some good news. Judging by what happened on here in last 24 hours someone in the Bradstock family has learnt how to use a computer !!!

Not sure why people were backing him on here when he was available with a run with the bookies.

Read a lot more of that on this forum than from the Bradstocks.

Personally don't think they have intended to mislead anyone, maybe a tad guilty of not handling the media well,but that's it imo.

Rubbish. They are have done amazingly well to win what they have with a horse that has always been injury prone. In a big yard, it would probably have been in a dogmeat tin before ever seeing a racecourse. It is very hard to keep a horse of that ability at top level for 3 seasons running. Look at Sprinter Sacre, Simonsig, Fingal Bay, Master Minded to name a few that come to mind at 8 o'clock in the morning. Are you also calling their trainers amateur?

At isleham who is telling the Bradstocks to stick to point to pointing. As it happens a lot of our best NH trainers started in pointing so that is not a bad training ground.

Backed Coneygree with Boyle six weeks ago and they've returned 75% of stake as free bet. Better than a kick up the arse, I suppose.