'It's been the plan since the summer' - Rouge Vif fuels Whittington fire for Cheltenham Festival

A plan hatched in the summer is inching closer for Harry Whittington, who will next week enter Rouge Vif in the Johnny Henderson Grand Annual at the Cheltenham Festival and believes the one-time class act is coming to the boil nicely.

Successful in the Kingmaker three years ago, Rouge Vif then finished third in Put The Kettle On's Arkle before defying a big weight when bolting up at Cheltenham in October 2020.

The French's gelding's then-owners Kate and Andrew Brooks switched him to Paul Nicholls in the summer of 2021, but he was bought by Colin Peake in June to rejoin Whittington, who trains on the edge of Lambourn in Sparsholt Firs.

He became a festival-winning trainer in 2020 when Simply The Betts landed the Plate and is taking heart from the latest effort produced by Rouge Vif, whom he reckons could be attractively handicapped.

"I hope we get in, but he'd have got in plenty of the last few runnings off 137 and Global Citizen won it off 136 last year," he said. "It's been my plan since the day he arrived back in the yard. I said to my wife Alice that I'd try to win the Grand Annual with him.

"I ran him twice over hurdles – but he's not a hurdler – and I wanted a confidence-booster over fences, which he had at Doncaster last time.

"I think that was a really hot two-mile handicap chase as Malystic won it and then wasn't beaten far in the Game Spirit, Before Midnight was fourth and is a really good horse, while Mackenburg has been third in another good race at Warwick, and Prince Escalus and Xcitations, who were behind us, were first and second at Wetherby this week. I think that Doncaster race has gone down as a course record too."

Whittington had an outbreak of strangles at his stables in November, so temporarily relocated his string to a yard in Lambourn, but they soon returned home and he is heartened by their wellbeing.

"I'm going to try to get him cherry ripe and he's come down a long way in the handicap," he added. "I think the hurdle runs sweetened him up and Sean Quinlan, who rode him at Doncaster, said he took a small blow, so he'll come on for that run in two ways. Mentally, he enjoyed himself because he was pricking his ears and looking for the next fence, and there's the physical improvement too.

"His form on Cheltenham's Old course is very good and he won that good handicap around it off 156 – he's 19lb lower now.

"He won't have another run, but I hope to give him a racecourse gallop beforehand and he seems to be really coming back to himself. The yard move went smoothly and we had fantastic advice from a lot of people, including Celia Marr [a vet based in Newmarket], but it's nice to be back home and using the facilities that worked so well for Simply The Betts three years ago."

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