Horse Racing: Nicholls Happy With On-song Opera

If the conditions at the Cheltenham Festival in March resemble those at Newbury yesterday, then the four days that define the National Hunt season will be a test of endurance for horses and racegoers alike.

Recent history may suggest that good ground, or faster, is much more likely to prevail in eight weeks' time, but if 2007 turns out an exception, a horse like Opera Mundi could be one to keep on your side.

Opera Mundi was an also-ran in the juvenile handicap hurdle at the Festival last year, but horses rarely stay over timber for long at Paul Nicholls' yard, and his victory in the Pheasant Inn Novice Chase was his second in as many starts over fences. Nicholls took the Royal & SunAlliance Chase last year with another five-year-old, Star De Mohaison, and Opera Mundi is now a 33-1 chance with Coral to continue the trend.

Just three runners set off for yesterday's race after Only Vintage and, more significantly, the second-favourite Don't Push It were both scratched because of the heavy ground. Private Be, making his debut over fences, set a fair pace and was eight lengths clear at halfway, which forced Ruby Walsh, on his only ride of the afternoon, to ask for a serious effort from Opera Mundi.

Once he had hit the front on the run to the last, though, Opera Mundi was merely kept up to his work to win by four lengths, leaving Nicholls with a decision to make about his target at the Festival.

"It is just a shame that Don't Push It didn't run, as we might have learned more if he had," said Nicholls. "He is in both the novice races at Cheltenham, but he looks more of a stayer than a speed horse."

That suggests that the Royal & SunAlliance is the preferred option for Opera Mundi, though Nicholls already has the ante-post favourite for that race in Denman, and no obvious contender for the Arkle Trophy, over two miles. Robert Ogden, meanwhile, who is the owner of Opera Mundi, also has an obvious SunAlliance candidate in Ungaro, so it could be premature for ante-post backers to discount the Arkle as a target for Opera Mundi at this stage.

Nicholls also reported that the continuing wet weather is a concern ahead of his intended prep race for Kauto Star, the King George VI Chase winner and favourite for the Gold Cup. "Kauto Star is in good order but I would want the ground to dry out and ideally we won't want it like this," Nicholls said. "If it is heavy, I could run him in the [two-mile] Game Sprit [at Newbury on 10 February] which Sporazene and Armaturk will run in, but I really want to run him over three miles [in the Aon Chase the same day] and that is the plan at the moment."

Detroit City, the subsequent Triumph Hurdle winner, took the juvenile hurdle on yesterday's card 12 months ago, but Pancake, who trotted up in the same race at odds of 1-4 yesterday, seems unlikely to take the same route.

"I will have to discuss the options with Philip [Hobbs]," Andrew Cohen, Pancake's owner, said. "The Totesport Trophy could be an option. He warrants an entry at Cheltenham but I doubt he would go."