Stand Up And Fight being prepared for late January return

Enda Bolger is gearing his leading Cheltenham Foxhunters contender, Stand Up And Fight, towards a spring campaign, with his seasonal re-appearance likely to come in the new hunter chase at Naas on January 26th 2020.

The seven-year-old had impressed when getting the better of a competitive field on his point-to-point debut at Dromahane last November, before he then won the first big hunter chase of the season at Down Royal on St. Stephen’s Day.

That first success over racecourse fences saw him get the better of a number of subsequent winners, including Sizing Coal and Kruzhlinin, who would later go on and end the season as the joint-champion point-to-pointer.

However that would prove to be the son of Flemensfirth’s final victory of the season, as he went on to finish second to Fenno’s Storm at Kilfeacle in January, before running at the Cheltenham and Punchestown Festivals.

Despite that Kilfeacle defeat he did remain one of the leading contenders for the Cheltenham Foxhunters, where he finished sixth to Hazel Hill and behind Ucello Conti, as the second Irish-trained horse in the race, before disappointing at Punchestown, pulling up in the Champion Hunter Chase, when sent off as the favourite.

That disappointing end to the season is very much in the mind of the Limerick trainer as he plots out a 2020 campaign for Stand Up And Fight in some of the biggest races in the division.

“Stand Up And Fight will be our standard bearer this year. We are going to play it differently with him. He seemed to peter off a bit after looking very good up to Christmas,” said Bolger of the bay who previously finished second over hurdles to Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Al Boum Photo.

“I know Cheltenham was a year too soon for him last season, we knew that going there, but at Punchestown he was pretty flat.

“We are probably going to do the Naas race first and then Cheltenham.”

Bolger also confirmed that former Irish Gold Cup winner, Edwulf, whom he sent out to win a Loughrea open under Aine O’Connor in October, has rejoined Joseph O’Brien ahead of upcoming hunter chases, whilst On The Fringe will once again be targeting a late season campaign with races at Killarney and Listowel.