Penny Max to target Newbury

Penny Max winning at Newbury December 2011. Photo by GJ Multimedia

Emma Lavelle is targeting exciting novice chaser Penny Max at the Check Betfair Before you Bet Novices’ Steeple Chase over three miles at Newbury on Saturday 11th February. However, he could meet the unbeaten Grand Crus who was last seen winning the Grade 1 Feltham Novices Chase on Boxing Day at Kempton.

Penny Max has won two of his three novice chase starts this season, winning emphatically at Newbury in December by 12 lengths followed by a victory at Exeter on New Years day.

The key to the six-year-old is ground conditions and this will decide his programme over the next few weeks as his trainer Emma Lavelle explained. “He is a horse who really needs soft ground and with the cold weather we’re experiencing, we need to run him when we can as he’s really well, in such good nick and we know he likes the track. If we can’t go to Newbury, plan b would be the Reynoldstown (Novices) Chase at Ascot the following week ground permitting.”

If Grand Crus were to run at Newbury, the race would become a very competitive affair, however Emma said, “I don’t think you should ever be afraid of one horse and the conditions of the race (at Newbury) will really suit him.”

Penny Max is unlikely to run at the Cheltenham Festival as soft ground is a rare occurence and Emma is keen not to overface the horse. “Unless the ground came up soft at Cheltenham, he won’t run there. Depending on how he runs at Newbury, that could very well be it for the season as I don’t want to overface him. His long-term aim is the Hennessy Gold Cup in November.”