Henderson toying with idea of Newbury for Lulamba

Arkle favourite Lulamba could be rerouted from Warwick’s Kingmaker Novices’ Chase to the William Hill Game Spirit at Newbury on February 7.

Nicky Henderson has always indicated Lulamba would have one more run before the Arkle after he won the Henry VIII Novices’ Chase in such good fashion in early December.

That was expected to be against fellow novices at Warwick, but with his Gold Cup hope Jango Baie also due to run at Newbury that day, the possibility of Nico de Boinville being able to ride both horses may mean Lulamba takes on more experienced chasers.

“I think we’ll look at the picture nearer the time, but I’d be very surprised if on the Tuesday morning he (Lulamba) isn’t in both races unless there’s a very obvious reason we should go one way or the other,” Henderson told Unibet.

“I’d quite like to go to Newbury, it’s just a great track. To be fair it is the same day as we’ve got Jango Baie almost certainly heading towards the Denman, so it might suit us to bring them both there.

“We’ve used the Game Spirit with novices before, Altior and we were going to with Sir Gino last year and then he had his problem literally three days before the race.

“So I might favour Newbury just because it’s on the doorstep – Warwick is only three-quarters of an hour further so it’s not going to change our lives, but it might make life simpler to do it that way. I’m sure Nico would say that.”