Spillane’s Tower is set to make his seasonal reappearance at Down Royal in just over two weeks, with trainer Jimmy Mangan identifying the BetVictor Champion Chase as the target – provided ground conditions are soft enough.
Last season’s John Durkan Chase at Punchestown was one of the races of the year, not least because it looked as though Spillane’s Tower had announced himself as a major player in open company when just denied by Fact To File and relegating Galopin Des Champs to third place.
This time around, plans are under way to take a trip north for the first Grade 1 of the Irish season.
“The idea is to run him at Down Royal,” Mangan said.
“We’ll go for that race if there is plenty of rain and if not we will just have to back off again.
It’s brilliant that JP [McManus, owner] has lots of horses for the John Durkan, so at the moment we are not going for that and going to Down Royal instead.
“As with all JP’s horses, when they go to Martinstown, he has had a great summer.
It is a brilliant hotel there; they really do well.”
Despite running a career best on his seasonal debut last year, that was as good as it got for the seven-year-old, with ground conditions failing to turn in his favour.
He was a disappointing favourite in the King George on good ground, before Cheltenham was bypassed to target the Aintree Bowl, but that plan was scuppered when the surface dried out on the day and he was withdrawn.
He arrived at the Punchestown festival for just his third run of the season when a 22-length second behind an imperious Galopin Des Champs.
Still, Mangan retains a positive disposition and believes better days are ahead once his star chaser gets the conditions he needs.
“We just had one of those years and hopefully we can make up for it this year when the rain comes,” he said. “It was too dry at Kempton last year and maybe it was his first time away, but he just didn’t perform on the day.
I was expecting a big run in Liverpool, but unfortunately the going was too quick again.
“He ran a great race at Punchestown.
He is better than the winning margin; he made a mistake at a very bad time, but for that he would have been closer.
He wouldn’t have beaten Galopin Des Champs because when he is good, he is very good.”
Surprisingly, in Spillane’s Tower’s three full seasons, he has never made an appearance at the Cheltenham Festival, but Mangan is not ruling it out this time around.
“Leopardstown at Christmas is maybe the main target,” he said.
“Cheltenham is possible, but at the end of the day, Frank [Berry, racing manager] and JP will make a plan and have the final say.”
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