Hughes on weather watch ahead of Down card

Dessie Hughes will be watching the weather reports over the next few days before finalising his plans for the JNwine.com Champion Chase at Down Royal on Saturday.

Hughes has Schindlers Hunt and Siegemaster entered in the Grade One event, but it is unlikely they will both run as they prefer different ground conditions.

Schindlers Hunt ran some cracking races in defeat last spring, including in the Ryanair Chase, the Melling Chase and the Guinness Gold Cup.

Siegemaster, a Grade Two-winning novice last term, made a pleasing seasonal debut when scoring at Wexford.

'Schindlers Hunt might run, but if it comes up heavy he won't,' said Hughes.

'At the moment we would like to run him, but the forecast for Friday is quite bad and if they get the deluge of rain they are expecting it will go heavy.

'We half intend to run Siegemaster in the second-season novice race on the same card (Ladbrokes.com Chase) but if it did go heavy, which suits him, we might chance him in the big one.

'The race he had at Wexford was ideal, it just left him right for something like this. Nobody would begrudge Schindlers a big one. It will happen this year, please God.

'There is an argument he's better in the spring, but that is when he gets his ground. He just struggles in heavy - he ran in it in Cork last year and was below his best.

'The first day he won in February at Leopardstown the ground was good and he went on from there. Good ground is the key. Even though he ran well at Punchestown in heavy behind Notre Pere, it didn't suit him.'

Hughes also had news of dual Champion Hurdle winner Hardy Eustace, who he said will be retired if he fails to sparkle on the gallops.

The 12-year-old holds an entry in the Morgiana Hurdle, a race in which he beat Sizing Europe last year, but his form tailed off as the season progressed.

'Hardy is in training and his work looks good - we'll see,' he said.

'If he hasn't lost too much of his speed and he still shows us that he is nearly as good as he was last year - which he looks to be at the moment - we'll run him and if he's not, we won't.

'The Morgiana (November 15) is a possibility and there's another race at Punchestown for him, so we'll just see how he works. We won't run him unless he is going to run well.'