Aintree plans for Hot Fuss after just missing out at Cheltenham

Hot Fuss heads to Aintree on a high after narrowly missing out on what would have been an “amazingly emotional” Martin Pipe victory at the Cheltenham Festival for trainer Tom Dascombe.

The five-year-old hit the front when clearing the final flight in the concluding race of the Prestbury Park meeting, but could not hold on as Air Of Entitlement claimed a two-and-a-three-quarter-length success for Henry de Bromhead.

Merseyside awaits for Hot Fuss, where he steps back in trip for the Debenhams Handicap Hurdle on the Friday of the Grand National Festival.

“We got balloted out of the County Hurdle so the only other option was to run in the Martin Pipe,” Dascombe said. “That would have been a race I’d have dearly loved to have won because I worked for him for six years.

“It would have been amazingly emotional, to receive a trophy off him, at the Cheltenham Festival.

“And to think we’ve only got one jumper and that one jumper isn’t letting us down.

“Going down to the last I thought ‘we’ve won this’, but I think after the last he was just legless. It was first time over two and a half miles, around a stiff track at Cheltenham in a competitive handicap coming up that hill.

“If you’d told me on the morning of the race that he’d finish second, I’d have taken that. So I can’t really complain after the race.

“He’s already won one big race this year at Windsor and there’s another big prize in him somewhere.”

He added: “Sadly the race didn’t go right for us at Cheltenham, he must have gone 50 yards if not further than the winner. We jumped off at the back, we looped the field – nothing went right, but he ran a blinder.

“The owners are very keen to go to Aintree so I think we will run him there in the open handicap on the Friday.

“He seems to thrive on exercise and racing so as long as there’s no reason not to run him, he’ll run.”

Hot Fuss has more experience on the Flat than over hurdles in a busy career to date, but the Frenchmans Lodge handler does not see any immediate plans to revert back on the level.

“He might come back for the Cesarewitch or something like that, but in the short term he will have a bit of a break after Aintree or at Sandown on the last day of the season,” he said.