Robbie Power Says ‘The Clock Is Ticking’ For Sizing John

Jockey Robbie Power has expressed frustration at the Irish weather which is preventing his Gold Cup winning partner Sizing John making his highly-anticipated return to the track.

The 2017 Gold Cup winner has yet to run since Leopardstown’s Christmas Festival later that year and his regular jockey wrote in his BoyleSports blog on Monday that time is running out for him to run before a planned tilt at regaining his crown in March.

He said:

It’s getting a bit frustrating at this stage. I’m nearly 20 years riding now and I’ve never known the ground to be this good in January.

“There’s one thing we can’t control though and that’s the weather so we’re just going to have to be patient. It is Ireland we live in after all so at some stage we are going to get rain!”

“There are a lot of trainers, like Jessie Harrington with Sizing John and Pat Kelly with Presenting Percy, just trying to get runs into them. The clock is ticking though and they’re going to have to run somewhere between now and Cheltenham.”

Jessica Harrington revealed last week Sizing John may run over hurdles if he runs out of other options before the Festival.

Power meanwhile also singled out Battleoverdoyen for praise after scoring in the Lawlor’s of Naas Hurdle on Sunday:

“I was very, very impressed; he had really caught my eye when he won a maiden hurdle in Navan.”

It’s not easy to go from a maiden hurdle to a Grade 1 but he traveled very sweetly through the race. There’s probably more improvement to come from him.

Gordon Elliott’s 6-year-old is now challenging 5/1 antepost favourite Champ after BoyleSports cut him into 6/1 from 16/1 for the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle after the Naas victory.
Read Robbie Power’s full blog post here.

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