Henry De Bromhead Sizing up his options for his Champion Chaser

Sizing Europe's trainer Henry De Bromhead whose star jumper is unbeaten over fences since taking to the bigger obstacles this season has thrown a bit of a googly this morning on attheraces when he suggested that he may yet have a go at the Champion Chase come the festival rather than the Arkle. One can understand this logic as the Arkle does look to be a very competitive heat this season with so many good novices about. The thinking might just be that with Master Minded not the same horse as the was two seasons ago that this race may just be easier to win than the Arkle.

We have our own view about Sizing Europe and while we love him to bits as a chaser, his jumping at Leopardstown in the Bord Na Mona novices chase at Christmas was very deliberate and he spent too much time in the air to win either the Arkle Chase or in particular the Queen Mother Champion Chase.

The big question is, was it the ground that he found difficult to cope with? as this could have resulted in him jumping a bit slowly or has Sizing Europe become aware of the bigger fences and is just taking care of himself. We suggest that the latter is the case as this follows on from his hurdling career in that he tended to back out of a battle, we hope we are wrong but only time will tell on this one.

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