LU BEAUTY

Nicky's gelding can rise to challenge in the Arkle Trophy

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READY TO NICK IT Rising star Lulamba flew to success at Newbury and Henderson now has the Arkle in his sights

CHRIS GORDON holds a decent hand as he shuffles his Cheltenham Festival pack for a high-stakes game of Happy Families. Assisted by former champion point-to-point rider wife Jenny and with conditional jockey son Freddie in the saddle, he hopes to turn up a trump card. Based just outside Winchester, he has gradually increased the quality of his stable since starting training nearly 20 years ago. This will be the strongest squad yet as he chases his first winner at jump racing's biggest meeting. Remiluc's second place in the 2018 County Hurdle is the closest he has come to breaking his Festival duck and hopes are high it will come this week. Gordon, above, has had only 17 runners at the Festival in as many years. This time it's likely around half a dozen with several leading chances. He said: "Electric Mason goes for the Pertemps Final. He ran a cracker at Cheltenham when second to Ma Shantou, who went on to win the Cleeve Hurdle. He then landed the big £100,000 handicap at Haydock. "There might be better handicapped horses but he's shown what a good horse he is. He's in great order. "Bass Hunter has done brilliantly. He goes for the Champion Bumper. He bolted up on his debut for us at Newbury and followed up in what is always a strong race at Ascot. Freddie probably went for home too early at Ascot - he thought he was on Frankel! "He got a bit tired and lonely but it was impressive. He's decent. "And Andashan has progressed with each run this season. The Martin Pipe looks ideal." There will be others and Freddie, who has led the race to be champion conditional jockey for much of the winter, is likely to ride them all if boss Nicky Henderson doesn't pull rank.

Lulamba. That win led to a rematch with Nicky Henderson's charge in the Champion Juvenile at Punchestown.