Miko's Christmas target

8:51am Thursday 25th September 2008

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MIKO De Beauchene - hero of last season's Coral Welsh National - is being groomed for an encore in the Christmas showpiece at Chepstow.

The winner of this prestigious staying handicap chase in Monmouthshire can expect a hefty rise in its weight 12 months later but jockey Robert Walford - outlining prospects for the stable of Robert and Sally Alner during an open day at Locketts Farm - reckons the eight-year-old should still be off the same mark.

Walford, who has been with the Alners at Droop, Hazelbury Bryan, near Sturminster Newton, for 10 years, said: "Halcon Genelardais, who carried top weight when a narrow runner-up to us last year, has been earmarked for the race again by his trainer Alan King, so that would mean our weight would remain about the same."

The 27-year-old son of Yorkshire trainer Tim Walford added that Miko De Beauchene would have the same prep run as last season - over hurdles in the Pertemps Handicap qualifier at Newbury in November - and after Chepstow the horse's target would once more be the Red Square Vodka Gold Cup at Haydock Park, Merseyside, in February - another race that it won during a sparkling 2007-08 campaign.

After its Haydock triumph the gelding, owned by Andrew Wiles from Kent, was second of 24 in the Pertemps final at the Chelten-ham Festival but Walford doubts whether Miko De Beauchene will return to the Cots-wolds next March - and don't mention Aintree.

He added: "Following Haydock we'll just wait and see but I can definitely rule him out of the Grand National - he''ll never go there. He did run in the Scottish National at Ayr last spring but the ground was too firm and maybe he had done enough by then anyway.

This is the toughest performer Walford has ever known: "He is an iron horse - he never has any ailments and always eats up after races.

"He had a really hard race in the Welsh National when Andrew Thornton pulled out all the stops for that emotional victory so soon after Robert Alner's serious car accident. Horses can take ages to recover from that race but the following day he was bouncing and charging round the field."

Regular rider Thornton missed the outings at Cheltenham and Ayr because of a serious shoulder injury - Walford deputised - but after a seven-month absence Thornton should be back for Miko De Beauchene's re-appearance in November.

Walford said: "Andrew is playing golf, so the injury must be a lot better."

Thornton, Walford and Irishman Daryl Jacob will once more be the Alner stable jockeys with Richard Young in his first season as assistant trainer after taking over from Nick Mitchell who has set up on his own.

Young was the yard's amateur who made his name when winning the 2003 Christie's Foxhunter Chase on Kingscliff and who subsequently moved to Seamus Mullins near Amesbury, Salisbury.

n Robert Alner achieved his goal of attending his stable's open day, his first visit to Locketts Farm since his car smash 10 months ago.

"He found it really stimulating and enjoyed it very much," said Sally Alner, following a day attended by more than 1,500 people.

n Former Melplash trainer Bob Buckler is launching his winter campaign from new headquarters.

After a quarter of a century at Melplash Court Farm near Bridport, Buckler has moved to a purpose-built 32-box barn at Henley near Crewkerne, on premises rented from Richard Barber's son Jeremy.

Despite many happy memories at Melplash, the trainer will not be sorry to have left behind the virus that plagued his last campaign.

Buckler said: "It took three months out of the middle of the season when we didn't have a winner. This meant the younger horses never came back to themselves even though the older ones coped better. "