Sponsors Coral upbeat over Saturday entries despite only seven in Grade 2 chase

Sponsors Coral have reacted positively to the entries for the Silviniaco Conti Chase and Lanzarote Hurdle at Kempton on Saturday after prize-money for the races was boosted by £65,000 as part of an initiative to improve the quality and competitiveness of the contests.

Simon Clare, PR director at Coral, had issued a plea last month, following the bookmaker taking over sponsorship, for owners and trainers to back the races and help reinvigorate a period between new year and the Cheltenham Festival that can “underperform”.

A total of 31 horses were entered for the £100,000 Coral Lanzarote Hurdle, matching the figure of last year when the race was worth £45,000, with the likes of the Emmet Mullins-trained Winter Fog, Gelino Bello and Up For Parol among the possible runners.

By contrast, the seven entered for the Grade 2 Coral Silviniaco Conti Chase makes it the second-lowest in the last five years, with only the six entries in 2020 being lower. Among the seven are Mister Fisher, Dashel Drasher, Fanion D’Estruval and Defi Du Seuil.

Clare said on Monday that the key figures would be the declarations on Thursday but that overall Coral were positive about the quality of entries.

“It looks like a positive entry for the races and our ambition for this meeting is to develop it over the next two to three years,” he said. “The feedback I’ve had on it has been positive and we believe this meeting, and the Coral Chase on February 26, can develop into big, standalone Saturday meetings.”

Simon Clare: 'The quality of the entry is high'Credit: Ian Walton

Clare was among the members of the Quality Jump Racing Review Group that was formed in May with the purpose of putting forward potential changes to improve top-level jump racing in Britain following 23 Irish-trained winners at last year’s Cheltenham Festival.

He acknowledged there was a smaller potential pool of horses for the Silviniaco Conti Chase but said he believed there was an appetite for the races if suitable rewards were on offer.

He said: “Something we understand is the wider issue that there are only so many horses who can run in a race like the Silviniaco Conti, and you have things like the Winter Million meeting taking place at Lingfield [on January 21-23] which will impact that too. But the quality of the entry is high.

“It’s a three-year plan we have in place at Kempton and that’s what we’re working towards. We want everyone to get on board with this and we know that if you put the prize-money up people will be prepared to run their horses. We want to try to work together to make this work for everyone.”

Winter Fog has been installed as 9-2 favourite with Coral for the Lanzarote Hurdle, with stablemate Rightplacerightime also among the entries for Mullins, who won with four of his nine jumps runners in Britain last season.

A significant Irish raid could also be expected at Warwick in the Pertemps qualifier, with Gordon Elliott responsible for nine of the 19 entries and Ronan McNally two, including Vee Dancer seeking a four-timer.

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