BARTON HEIGHTS can improve Mary Reveley's already impressive strike-rate at Gosforth Park with a victory in the Newcastle Student City Handicap Hurdle today.
The four-year-old did not look up to much during his first three races over hurdles, in which he failed to trouble the judge.
However, he began to get the hang of things towards the end of last season and won novice events at Catterick in March and Carlisle in April, showing improved form on the latter occasion.
Both those victories came over trips around two and a half miles, so it was something of a surprise when Barton Heights made his reappearance over two miles at Newcastle at the beginning of the month.
In the circumstances he ran a fine race in finishing third to Colin Parker's Kemo Sabo. Chasing the leading pack throughout, he was asked for an effort once in line for home and kept on at one pace from the second last to go under by 10 lengths.
There is little doubt that the return to two and a half miles today will bring about improvement from Barton Heights, who is also entitled to strip fitter for his seasonal debut. The four-year-old looks to figure on a lenient mark and is napped to make short work of his eight rivals.
At Warwick, the Frank Jordan-trained Saint Ciel can defy top-weight in the Gog Brook Handicap Hurdle over two miles. The eight-year-old entire has made his name as something of a specialist at Haydock, where he has won four times.
On his reappearance there he ran a good race to finish second to Jim Old's Chai-Yo in November and then went one better again at Haydock last time.
The future of high-class hurdler Atours is in the balance as the eight-year-old struggles to recover from a pastern injury, his trainer David Elsworth revealed yesterday. The gelding, rated a live Champion Hurdle contender by Elsworth, split a pastern after the last of his three victories last season, in Sandown's Agfa Hurdle in February. Atours finished seventh to Alderbrook in the 1995 Champion but Elsworth rates the bay's chances of making the line-up at another Cheltenham Festival as slim.
"Atours has incurred a very serious injury," the trainer said. "He hasn't been retired but at the moment there would be some doubt about whether he would run again. He split a pastern and then he injured it again when he was just fooling about. It is fairly serious and he has been pinned and bolted. He hasn't been retired but I wouldn't go backing him for any Champion Hurdles just yet."
