Nicholls hoping Scilly Isles will point the way for Kalif Du Berlais

Paul Nicholls feels stamina is the main question Kalif Du Berlais has to answer in Saturday’s Virgin Bet Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase at Sandown.

Another smart prospect owned by Sir Alex Ferguson, John Hales et al, after taking a heavy fall when long odds-on for his chasing debut at Carlisle, he has bounced back to win twice.

At Newbury he beat Tedley by three-quarters of a length, but then he had the same horse over 28 lengths behind him when scoring impressively at Cheltenham.

The runner-up that day, Vincenzo, has subsequently won a decent race at Sandown.

“He had a quiet couple of weeks since he won at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day, he had a flu jab and he doesn’t need a whole heap of work,” said Nicholls on Racing TV.

“Natalie Parker rides him and is very happy, he did a great piece of work this morning.

“Will he get two and a half miles? That’s the question. Everybody who has anything to do with him thinks he will, but until he has proven that you just don’t know.”

Nicholls admitted that had Dan Skelton’s L’Eau Du Sud not been in the same ownership then he may have waited for next weekend’s Kingmaker Novices’ Chase over two miles.

He said: “If L’Eau Du Sud wasn’t in the same ownership he’d probably go to Warwick next weekend for the Kingmaker, so we didn’t have too many options to run him – it’s a £100,000 Grade One race with four runners so we’ll give it a go.

“Saturday will tell us where we go, there’s the Pendil at Kempton, if we took that in we might miss Cheltenham and go to Aintree with him. We look at the options and make a plan as the season goes on.”

Handstands, Jango Baie and Mark Of Gold form the opposition to the Nicholls runner.