No hurry for Lawes to set out St Pancras timetable

Toby Lawes is keeping his options open with the progressive St Pancras after his second place in the Adonis Juvenile Hurdle at Kempton.

The four-year-old son of Siyouni won twice in seven starts on the Flat before joining Lawes at the end of last year.

He trailed home 20 lengths behind Triumph Hurdle favourite Lulamba on his yard debut at Ascot before scoring at the second attempt when winning the Scottish Triumph Hurdle at Musselburgh at the beginning of the month.

St Pancras then stepped up in grade at Kempton and did not disgrace himself as he kept on to chase home Mambonumberfive, just holding off the odds-on favourite Mondo Man in the process.

Lawes has yet to firm up his plans with Ascot and Sandown among the possible targets.

He said: “I was very pleased with the run. He’s taken another step forward again, he’s really coming on for the experience. His jumping was the sharpest it’s been.

“The ground went a bit softer than ideal for him and I think that probably just blunted his turn of foot a little bit, but absolutely delighted with the run. Giving away 5lb to those two other horses was pretty impressive from him, so we were delighted.

“We haven’t quite decided what is next for him, quite possibly the juvenile handicap at Ascot at the end of the month or we might look to get him qualified for the novices’ championship final at Sandown or see how some of the other conditions races shape up in the spring, or even at Punchestown potentially.”

He holds an entry at Newbury in a Novices’ Championship Hurdle qualifier on Friday but the likely ground means that assignment is unlikely to be taken up.

Lawes is undecided on the way forward next season with chasing an option, adding: “We probably will give him a pop over a fence this spring just to see whether we want to do that next year.

“To be honest, I think I would actually quite like to get him into some nice handicap hurdles next year. You never know, he might be one for the Betfair or something like that but there is always the option to go chasing with a bit of a weight allowance. We’ll keep plans fluid at the moment.”