Christian Von Der Recke has opted to saddle Burgoyneinstead of his more experienced stablemate Café Au Lait in the £20,000 JCB Triumph Hurdle Trial (12.10pm, 13 entries) at Cheltenham on Saturday, December 14, day two of The International.
The German handler is no stranger to success at Cheltenham, having captured the Grade Two JCB Triumph Hurdle Trial with Moneytrain on Festival Trials Day in 2003. He also annexed the Grade Two Desert Orchid Chase at Kempton Park with tearaway front-runner Fiepes Shuffle in 2008.
Burgoyne will be having his first start over hurdles following an impressive six-length success on the Flat at Mons Racecourse in Belgium on November 11. The three-year-old was formerly trained in Britain by Hughie Morrison and won a maiden at Southwell in March.
Café Au Lait, a winner on the Flat in Germany, finished six lengths behind Herod The Great on his hurdling debut at Warwick on November 6 and is more likely to contest the Grade Two Summit Juvenile Hurdle at Doncaster on the same afternoon.
Von Der Recke revealed: "Burgoyne will be making his hurdling debut, but every piece of work he has done has been as good as Café Au Lait. After their last piece of schooling I said if we are taking one over, we might as well take the other.
"I bought Burgoyne at Newmarket fairly cheaply (3,000 guineas) and as well as winning in England, he has won on the Flat in Germany and Belgium for me. He won very well last time and we are just working out how to ride him.
"He had three or four bad runs when he was laying up with the leaders early on, but at Cheltenham there is no need to do that and we can wait in last place and see what happens. I used similar tactics with Moneytrain when he won.
"Café Au Lait is more likely to go Doncaster because he wants a bit of cut in the ground and they have forecast rain in the north.
"I definitely expect him to improve from his run at Warwick because the ground was a bit slippery and he made a few mistakes, which didn't help his confidence. The winner is a nice horse and the horse who finished third had won a race, so it will be interesting to see how much Café Au Lait has improved.
"I think a strongly run race would suit him as well because he was keen and made mistakes at Warwick, which is not a good combination."
Also among the 13 entries for the JCB Triumph Hurdle Trial is French import Vincenzo Mio, facile Sandown scorer Kentucky Hyden, dual winner Dispour and Clarcam, who finished third behind Analifet at Fairyhouse on December 1.
The £130,000 Grade Two StanJames.com International Hurdle headlines the seven-race card on Saturday and looks set to throw up an exciting clash between Stan James Champion Hurdle favourite The New One and last year's winner Zarkandar.
Going
The going at Cheltenham remains
Chase and Hurdle Course: Good (Watered)
Cross Country Course: Good, Good to Firm in places (Watered)
GoingStick readings at 2.00pm today: Chase and Hurdle Course 7.4; Cross Country Course 7.6
The forecast is for dry weather up until Thursday. A spell of rain (4mm) is forecast on Friday and Saturday is expected to be dry.
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