Connections of Irish Panther are giving some consideration to running in the Queen Mother Champion Chase rather than the Arkle Trophy at the Cheltenham Festival next week.
Trained by the father-son partnership of Eddie and Patrick Harty, the nine-year-old made a impressive start to his career over fences at Naas in November before pushing subsequent Irish Arkle winner Romeo Coolio all the way at Leopardstown over Christmas.
Irish Panther sidestepped a Dublin Racing Festival rematch, with the Hartys instead electing to send their stable star to the Cotswolds fresh, but whether he sticks to novice company in the Arkle or instead bids for Champion Chase glory against more experience rivals remains undecided.
Eddie Harty said: “He’s in good form, he did his last bit of work this morning and he’s pleasing us. It’s just a case now of getting him there in one piece.
“With the ground the way it was the Irish Arkle was always going to be attritional and it was. Whether it will come back to haunt us and he could have done with another run, only time will tell, but at this particular moment in time I’m delighted we did what we did.
“He’ll be left in both races next week. It’s odds-on in favour of the Arkle, but there is no point in calling that one until you have to call it.”
Irish Panther is a general 12-1 shot for the Arkle, putting him fifth in the market behind Nicky Henderson’s Lulamba, the Willie Mullins-trained pair of Kopek Des Bordes and Kargese and Romeo Coolio from Gordon Elliott’s yard.
He is much bigger odds of 33-1 with Coral for a Champion Chase that will be missing last year’s winner Marine Nationale after he was scratched on Tuesday morning, but Harty can see the logic behind potentially taking his chance.
When asked what could sway the team towards a tilt at the Champion Chase, the trainer added: “Well you got one reason this morning.
“If you take out Majborough, it’s almost an easier option than the Arkle as it stands, but you’ve still got the next couple of days to see what comes out, or more importantly what gets supplemented in on the back of what has happened in the last week or so.
“If the Champion Chase was the Premier League, except for Majborough they’d all be in the bottom half of it, whereas in the novice division you’re possibly talking about horses who could get into the Champions League spots.”
It has been an emotional few weeks for the Harty family, with Eddie not only losing his father Eddie senior – who was a Grand National-winning jockey and an Olympic eventer – but also his mother, Patricia.
It is 18 years since Eddie jnr claimed his first and only Festival success to date with the JP McManus-owned Captain Cee Bee in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and it would undoubtedly be a huge boost for all involved if Irish Panther can get his name on the winner’s board at the sport’s showpiece event.
He said: “It’s been one of those months and Cheltenham can either perk you up or leave you even flatter, but we’re looking forward to it.”
