News:It is 15 years since Adrian Maguire first hit the Cheltenham heights as a jockey with Cool Ground's Gold Cup victory but he won't be rushed into attempting a first success there as a trainer and a final decision on whether or not his star mare Celestial Wave runs in the Ladbrokes World Hurdle won't be made until festival week itself.
Celestial Wave's progress this winter sees her priced as low as 8 to 1 for the third day festival feature but testing conditions are a pre-requisite for her running and Maguire said yesterday he will "give her every chance" to make the line-up.
"Transport to Cheltenham has been organised and basically if we decide to go, it will be in the week itself. I want to give her every chance so we will leave it as late as possible," the Co Cork-based trainer reported.
"We are playing it by ear with the ground at the moment. I'm not going to go over and look at the course myself. There are plenty of reliable people over there to talk me through it. If it was anywhere else, you'd say we were likely to go, but Cheltenham does drain very quickly and if they get four or five dry days, it would be too quick for her," he added.
Maguire also said that Celestial Wave is in super form since her last race at Gowran a month ago and that Black Jack Ketchum's shock defeat just a few days later has opened the stayers crown wide open.
"I know she has to step up on what she has done so far but I think there is every chance she can. With Black Jack Ketchum getting beaten, the race is wide open and everyone is going there now thinking they have a chance," he declared.
Another former top jockey, the champion amateur Philip Fenton, is also in pursuit of a first Cheltenham victory as a trainer and could have as many as four runners at the festival. Heading the list of possibles is Arrive Sir Clive who is as low as 14 to 1 in some lists for the Ballymore Properties Novices' Hurdle but also holds an entry in the three-mile Brit Insurances Hurdle.
Arrive Sir Clive was third to the Ballymore favourite Aran Concerto in the Deloitte at Leopardstown earlier in the month but it looks likely he will again take on Noel Meade's highly-rated star in the Ballymore. "The Brit might be more suitable for him but he's only a six year old and I wouldn't like to punish him over three miles just yet," the Co Tipperary-based Fenton said yesterday. "We've always thought he might end up a SunAlliance Chase type of horse next year so the Ballymore, which is two miles and five, might be a better option this time."
Another Fenton runner with two options is the good novice Vic Venturi who at this stage looks set to take up a Jewson Novice Handicap Chase entry rather than the SunAlliance.
Son Of Oscar will try and earn a County Hurdle place at Leopardstown this Sunday and a surprise Fenton contender at Cheltenham looks like being the star bumper mare Shirley Casper. She hasn't been seen since landing a Grade Two at Navan in December and the original plan had been to wait for the mares bumper at Aintree. However Fenton said yesterday: "There's no reason to think she can't run at Cheltenham as well."
