© Photo Healy Racing
Last year's Champion Chase winner Sire De Grugy has come out of his Cheltenham warm-up at Chepstow with his confidence boosted and is "good as gold" according to jockey, Jamie Moore.
Sire De Grugy was rerouted to Wales after unseating Moore in Newbury on his seasonal debut and despite the fact that there were less than three weeks until his intended festival engagement, Moore is certain the nine-year-old French-bred will be spot on at Prestbury Park.
Speaking on the irishracing.com podcast Talking Horses, Moore admitted that he felt a special bond with his father, Gary's stable star and was delighted that it was now all systems go in a bid to make it back-to-back Champion Chases at Cheltenham.
"It was a massive gamble but to be honest I think people mollycoddle horses to much worrying about Cheltenham all the time" said Moore. "There's races there to be won and we've gone and won it.
"His least impressive performance last year was in the Desert Orchid Chase and then 20 days later, his best performance was in the Clarence Chase. He's got 18 days recovery this time so really it doesn't bother me at all.
"I'm just pleased he got out there and showed he's still got a bit of ability."
Moore also picked Un De Sceaux as the horse outside Sire De Grugy he would most like to ride, describing the Mullins machine as "different gravy" and joking that he was extra keen to win the Champion Chase this year with the likelihood that the front-running jumping machine would be a likely contender next term.
Harry Fry also spoke to the Talking Horses crew and went through the prospects of his festival team, including flag-bearer, Rock On Ruby in the World Hurdle.
There was also a clip of Willie Mullins talking about Annie Power s well-being, while Nicky Henderson emphasised Sprinter Sacre s good form and revealed that Barry Geraghty feels they may well get the better of Un De Sceaux in the Arkle Chase.
Listen to the full show here
