Owen to lower Burdett Road’s sights next time

James Owen is confident better ground will see Burdett Road flourish in his switch to chasing this season.

The Royal Ascot winner turned Champion Hurdle runner-up started life over the larger obstacles at Cheltenham on Saturday and was not disgraced when third behind July Flower and Be Aware in the Arkle Trial.

Although unable to play a significant role at the business end of the contest, the Owen is taking plenty of positives from Burdett Road’s sure-footed jumping in testing conditions and will now seek a winnable opportunity on a smaller scale before reassessing the five-year-old’s place in the two-mile chasing pecking order.

“I thought Burdett Road was fantastic, it wouldn’t have been his ground, first day over fences, but he stayed on well up the hill,” said Owen.

“There will be better days for him over fences and I have to be delighted. He’s only schooled in Newmarket and they are not over big fences, but he jumped really well and cleared them and it was an effort for him in that ground, but on decent ground he will be a different horse.

“He settled lovely and it’s the best he’s probably raced during a race and I think we’ll have some fun with him over fences.

“Whether he is Arkle class we don’t know, but on good ground we could catch them up.

“I think we’ll stick to two miles with him and it would be nice to go somewhere small with him now and have a nice experience. We’ll use Cheltenham as a springboard to chasing and now we’d like to get a win into him before we look at stepping him back up in grade.

“We can do that over fences, but over hurdles I think he’s bashing his head against a brick wall at the minute.”

Meanwhile, Owen is set to continue globetrotting with his star performer on the Flat Wimbledon Hawkeye, with the Nashville Derby hero a possible for the Neom Turf Cup in Saudi Arabia after taking his connections to the Breeders’ Cup recently.

Owen added: “I loved the whole experience of the Breeders’ Cup with Wimbledon Hawkeye. He’ll go pot-picking and go travelling.

“He’s on a break at the minute but he may go to Saudi.”