Lulamba enters Adonis equation geegeez.co.uk

Nicky Henderson is giving serious consideration to running JCB Triumph Hurdle favourite Lulamba, rather than his stablemate Palladium, in Saturday’s Ladbrokes Adonis Juvenile at Kempton.

The Seven Barrows handler was initially minded to wait until the Cheltenham Festival with Lulamba following his scintillating British debut at Ascot in mid-January.

A few days later German Derby winner Palladium, an expensive purchase by the Bamford family who sponsor the Triumph Hurdle through their company JCB, made a winning hurdling bow for the yard at Huntingdon.

Palladium, who is still a colt, looked set to be the stable’s representative in this weekend’s Grade Two in Sunbury, but speaking at a Jockey Club press morning at his yard on Monday, Henderson revealed he may yet send Lulamba into battle instead.

He said: “I thought we weren’t going to run Lulamba but he’s terribly well, he’d have to have a racecourse gallop anyway and the other fellow (Palladium) is good at what he does.

“Lulamba has only had two runs in his whole life. I don’t know, we’ll see, they are both going to work tomorrow and then we’ll decide.”

German Derby winner Palladium made a winning start over hurdles at Huntingdon (Joe Giddens/PA)

Palladium was a two-length victor at Huntingdon and the Seven Barrows handler has taken a positive view of the form.

“There are two things about Palladium’s Huntingdon race, the form has already turned out to be red-hot and secondly the time was fantastic,” he added.

“He was six seconds faster than the other division on the same card and the second and fourth have come out and won since.

“We’re thinking Royal Ascot and Melbourne Cup. I tend to take notice of the times only when it’s in our favour, if you’re in the slower division we tend not to read that one!

“Lulamba did look incredibly good (at Ascot). He’s very laid back and has a lovely attitude to it, but he has only had two runs in his life.

“It just occurs the way the other horse has been working and schooling, does he really need to run? He’s done a mountain of racing. I think he might be better where he is, I don’t know, we’ll just see after they’ve worked tomorrow.

“Palladium doesn’t need the experience of a big race day, he’s had plenty on the Flat, so it’s possible we might switch it around, we’ll see.”

Jingko Blue could make a swift return to action at Kempton (Adam Davy/PA)

The meeting could also be the next port of call for Jingko Blue, who until last weekend was progressing very nicely in his novice chasing career.

The six-year-old won on his debut over fences by nine and a half lengths and was then a Grade Two winner in the Hampton Novices’ Chase, but his Reynoldstown run at the weekend ended prematurely when he unseated his rider at the third fence.

He holds an entry for the Brown Advisory at the Cheltenham Festival, but the mishap has left Henderson wanting to run him once more beforehand and the Pendil Novices’ Chase looks to be the answer.

He said: “We’re going to put him in the Pendil at the weekend, you wouldn’t want to go to the Brown Advisory off the back of what happened there (Ascot).

“It’s only two and a half miles, though I wanted to go three with him to see where his stamina was to be fair.”