RAWNAQ appeared to run above expectation when an unlucky third behind Darna in the Brown Advisory & Merriebelle Stable Plate Handicap Chase on the Thursday at Cheltenham but his trainer Matthew Smith fully expected the eight-year-old to perform as well as he did.

“He has won six for us. He won what looked an ordinary beginners’ chase at Navan last year, but after he ran at Cork last October, Andrew Lynch came in and said that he made a bit of a noise. We got his wind tidied up and he was showing all the signs before Navan that it had improved him and it wasn’t a shock to us that he beat Gilgamboa (in the Grade 2 Flyingboat Novice Chase) that day,’’ explained Smith.

“We stuck him in at Cheltenham and he was in great form after he won at Navan. We knew that he’d like the better ground and he was third in the Greatwood Hurdle there in 2013. To be honest I don’t see the point in bringing them over unless they’ll be competitive and bar that mistake at the last, he would have finished a good second,’’ he added.

LIVERPOOL

Next week the son of Azamour will be back on the ferry to Liverpool and will take his chance in a Grade 1 novice chase over two and a half or three miles. Smith remarked: “It is great to have horses like him. Gretzky has won five for us and Shalaman, who heads to Lingfield for a valuable conditions race on Good Friday has won three, including his last two races at Dundalk.

“Shalaman was good the last day and I know people didn’t expect us to beat Parish Hall but he has turned inside out over the last few weeks. He is running away with the lads at home. I can’t put my finger on why, but he is in some form and I’d like to think that he’ll run well over there.’’

DOUBLE FIGURES

Smith has proved that he is a more than capable operator. Remarkably, his string is not yet into double figures and that is something that he’d like to rectify.

“It isn’t easy and I’d like to think that we have done well with the horses that we have and I’d love to expand and get more horses. I have eight here at the minute and we have room for more. It is a small set up and the horses want for nothing and we’d like to keep it that way. “We have a three-furlong sand gallop here and I can take the horses away to Tony Martin’s to get some work into them,’’ he explained.

“I worked for Robbie Hennessey for a while and he was a great help to me but I don’t come from a racing background. My father had always had horses and he has three here at the minute including Rawnaq but there’s room for plenty more in the yard.’’