Equestrian story by Dominic Taylor, Tue, 28 Feb 2006 18:04:00 GMT


In a surprise move, Ladalko is to skip the Cheltenham Festival and go directly to compete in the Gala Casinos Daily Record Scottish Grand National. This move is clearly unexpected especially after his fourth place showing at Racing Post Chase at Sandown.

The seven-year-old Ladalko's trainer Paul Nicholls is very eager to see that his charge is fresh for the Ayr marathon on April 22 and hence after Ladalko finished just four lengths behind the third-placed My Will, he decided to give Cheltenham a go. “I was very pleased with both of them and I think we will leave Ladalko now and go straight to the Scottish National,” Nicholls said. “He goes well fresh and has had a few races.

Cheltenham may come too soon so the obvious thing is to go straight to Ayr. He keeps improving – looking at where the horses finished behind him, I think he ran a career best yesterday.” My Will, who came runner-up to Our Vic in the Ascot tote sport Chase a couple of weeks previously was staying on to finish the frame, “My Will thrives on racing, has come out of the race well and is in several races at Cheltenham, but the ground will dictate which race he runs in,” Nicholls commented.

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