Coral Cup in Fry’s sights with Altobelli

The Coral Cup at the Cheltenham Festival could be the next port of call for Altobelli following his Ascot victory over the weekend.

The seven-year-old made it back-to-back victories at the Berkshire circuit when he hit the front two flights from home and repelled all challengers to score by the best part of four lengths.

It followed his victory at the track last month and prior to that he was only a length second on his seasonal reappearance at Doncaster late last year.

One of the big Festival handicaps is now in trainer Harry Fry’s sights, with the Coral Cup being the preferred target.

Fry said: “We’re very pleased with him, he’s got good form around Ascot and he followed up nicely from his course-and-distance win in January.

“Obviously the handicapper is going to have a say, but he’s clearly thriving at the moment and hopefully he can continue on an upward curve into the spring festivals.

“The step up in trip and the application of the cheekpieces the last twice have definitely had a positive impact, the Cheltenham Festival handicaps close tomorrow and he’ll be given an entry in the Coral Cup and we’ll go from there.

“We’ll wait a couple of weeks and then see if we go there or we wait for Aintree. We’ll be guided by him.”