The Finale Juvenile Hurdle at Chepstow over Christmas beckons for Sandown winner Hot Fuss.
Tom Dascombe’s three-year-old was rated as high as 95 on the Flat and switched codes swiftly in the autumn to make his debut over obstacles at Wincanton in late October.
There he came home the runner-up when beaten four lengths in a juvenile hurdle, but the winner was James Owen’s East India Dock, who subsequently scored by 18 lengths at Grade Two level during Cheltenham’s November meeting.
With the form from their Wincanton meeting boosted, Hot Fuss lined up at Sandown on Friday as the 4-9 favourite for a two-mile juvenile hurdle and duly prevailed by three and a half lengths under David Bass.
A step up in grade for the Finale Juvenile Hurdle at Chepstow on December 27 is now the plan for the gelding, with the Cheltenham Festival pencilled in further down the line before a potential switch back to the level.
Dascombe said: “To be honest, I expected him to win at Wincanton, you’ve got to remember he was beaten a length and a quarter in the Chesham and about four lengths in the Acomb – he’s a good horse.
“He’s by Calyx and he needs soft ground. On the Flat, we just couldn’t get his ground a lot of the time, so we thought we’d send him hurdling.
“He jumps great and he’s really taken to it, I’m very pleased with him.
“East India Dock won very easily at Cheltenham. I don’t watch too much hurdle racing, but I’d say we’d be nearly as good as there’s been out so far. I’m very happy with him.
“We’ll go to Chepstow on December 27 for the Finale Hurdle, I’m pretty sure we’ll go there, then I’m pretty sure I’ll be persuaded to run him at Cheltenham, so we’ll probably go there, depending on how we get on at Chepstow.
“I’d also quite like to run him in the Chester Cup consolation race, that would be my plan but we’ll have to see how we get on. We’ll focus on Chepstow for the minute.”
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