Cheltenham hosts an exciting seven-race card on Festival Trials Day, Saturday, January 28, which is the last fixture at the home of Jump racing before The Festival in March.
Ballyrock, who finished a very promising second to Fingal Bay in the Grade One Challow Hurdle at Newbury on December 31, could put his Festival credentials on the line in the £25,000 Grade Two Neptune Investment Management Novices' Hurdle (3.05pm) over an extended two and a half miles.
The six-year-old will be hoping to follow a similar path to Bobs Worth, who won the race last season before going on to Festival glory in the Grade One Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle.
Trainer Tim Vaughan, based in the Vale Of Glamorgan, said: “The Grade Two Neptune Investment Management Novices' Hurdle is definitely under consideration for Ballyrock.
“He's been like a lion since his last run, and we are going to try and get one more run into him, either at Cheltenham next week or at Haydock the week after, to put him spot on for the Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle at The Festival.
“I couldn't have been happier with his last run. He had a long lay off with us through one niggle after the other, and obviously after getting him back to win at Hereford I was confident of a much improved run in the Challow. I am still fairly confident he is massively improving, and if we can get another good run into him next time it should put us in with a sporting chance come Cheltenham in March.
“He's right up there with the best of our novice hurdlers - well he is our best novice hurdler. Ballyrock and Destroyer Deployed are at the top of the pecking order. He already wants three miles and a fence in front of him, and I'm hoping in time he will be a proper three-mile chaser.”
The highlight of Festival Trials Day is the Grade Two £100,000 Argento Chase (2.30pm), staged over just short of three and a quarter miles. The prestigious contest is supported by three further Grade Two events - the £25,000 JCB Triumph Hurdle Trial (12.50pm), the £25,000 Neptune Investment Management Novices' Hurdle (3.05pm), and the £50,000 Cleeve Hurdle (3.40pm). The action is completed by the £25,000 Timeform Novices' Handicap Chase (1.25pm), the £40,000 Grade Three Murphy Group Handicap Chase (2.00pm), and the £21,000 Stellar Football 'End Of Transfer Window' Handicap Hurdle (4.15pm).
The Argento Chase often has a strong influence on the Betfred Cheltenham Gold Cup. Last season's renewal saw Neptune Collonges make all to win under an enterprising ride from A P McCoy, thus giving trainer Paul Nicholls his fourth victory in the race.
The 2000 Argento Chase was won by the Noel Chance-trained Looks Like Trouble, who returned to Prestbury Park two months later to capture chasing's top event. The 1995 Argento Chase went to Master Oats, who beat the previous year's heroine Dubacilla by 15 lengths. The pair returned to the course two months later to compete in the Betfred Cheltenham Gold Cup, filling the same positions and by exactly the same margin.
The other feature race is the three-mile Cleeve Hurdle, which often serves as a good trial for the Ladbrokes World Hurdle, and last year Grands Crus ran out a very impressive winner, before going on to finish a honourable second to Big Buck's at The Festival in March. Trainer Paul Nicholls has stated that Big Buck's could line up in this year's renewal of the Grade Two contest.
