Richards considering Formby option for exciting Upon Tweed

Nicky Richards is in no hurry with his exciting and unbeaten hurdling prospect Upon Tweed.

The five-year-old won his sole bumper run by 18 and a half lengths in February, defeating a horse who has come out and won twice over hurdles since in Conman John.

Upon Tweed has turned his hand to hurdling with real promise himself, winning his debut at Ayr in November by eight and a half lengths and then returning to the same track a month later to prevail again over the same two-mile trip.

“He’s grand, there’s not a bother on him. There’s not much for him now until Boxing Day, so we’ll see about the Formby,” said Richards of the Eddie Melville-owned gelding.

“I’m not too keen on running him on deep ground again, it’s an option but there’s no panic and no rush.

“Everybody has dreams and the dream is to turn him into a high-class horse, hopefully that’ll come to be as we go along.

“I love him, and we’ve been at it a long time now and we’ll go step by step with him and hope by the end of his career people will go ‘wow, what a horse that was’.

“We don’t drive straight into the fast lane with our horses, we’ll just let him take us along on the journey.

“We’ve no fancy plans set in stone, the Formby is about the only race for him but we’re in no rush. He’s a big, fine horse at the start of his career and we’ll look after him.”