Milton Harris' Grade One winning stable star Knight Salute made his reappearance for the season at Cheltenham's Showcase meeting but will now head to Wincanton for the Grade Two Elite Hurdle off the back of that run.
A very average flat horse for Andrew Balding, he was moved to Milton Harris in September 2021 and has been a completely different animal since switching codes.
Winning all of his first five events over hurdles, starting at Sedgefield when bolting up, he then went to Kempton and beat a nice type in Impulsive One.
Stepped up to Grade Two company at Cheltenham's November meeting he made it 3/3 in the Triumph Trial Juvenile Hurdle and then at Doncaster in December 2021 made it four in a row when taking another Grade Two in the Summit Juvenile Hurdle beating Porticello.
He made it a hat-trick of Grade Two wins in Britain and five on the spin in the Adonis Juvenile Hurdle at Kempton, but was then sent into the Triumph Hurdle at the Cheltenham festival and was unfortunately outclassed by the Irish raiders.
THAT IS AN UNBELIEVABLE FINISH!
— Aintree Racecourse (@AintreeRaces) April 7, 2022
KNIGHT SALUTE gets up right on the line to DEAD HEAT with PIED PIPER in the @Jewson Anniversary Hurdle 😧
Stewards Enquiry called...#RandoxGrandNational pic.twitter.com/X9CdDCLjHo
However, rounding off last season in superb fashion he landed the first Grade One of his career when taking the 4-Y-O Juvenile Hurdle at Aintree's Grand National meeting.
A race full of drama with the verdict initially called a dead heat but in the stewards room, Knight Salute took the race from Pied Piper, reversing the Triumph Hurdle form.
Starting this season back at Cheltenham, taking on Pied Piper for a third time he was no match for the Irish raider in the final stages of the race but his trainer was very happy with his run back in second and he has now been targeted at the Grade Two Elite Hurdle at Wincanton.
(Credit ATR) “We’ve talked about it and we have decided to go for the Elite Hurdle at Wincanton,” said Harris.
“I expect we will come up against Alan King’s horse and a few more, but that is our plan.
“We will assess things after that. If the winner (Pied Piper) is only 12-1 for the Champion Hurdle, then we can’t be that far behind him, can we?”