Wherefore art thou Shakespeare?

Royal Shakespeare is set to skip an engagement in the Baileys Arkle Perpetual Challenge Cup Novice Chase at Leopardstown on Sunday on account of the likely heavy ground.

Steve Gollings' charge has made an encouraging start over fences and got off

the mark at the fourth time of asking when beating the smart Trouble At Bay by

10 lengths at Kempton earlier in the month.

He holds another entry in the rescheduled H.B.L.B. Lightning Novices' Chase at

Huntingdon on Wednesday but an appearance there also looks unlikely unless the

ground dries up beforehand.

"It's dependent on the weather really but I have spoken to Leopardstown today

and currently they have heavy ground so that would be a non-starter," said

Gollings about the possibility of an appearance in the Irish Arkle.

"He is in great form at the moment so I would like him to run somewhere but

the weather forecast isn't great here either.

"He could go to Huntingdon and Richard Johnson is available to ride him if he

runs but again it is dependent on the weather.

"It was great for him to finally get a win under his belt last time and I've

been annoyed at some of the comments saying that he isn't a natural over fences.

"He made a mess of the second last but he never looked like falling. I think

he has acquitted himself very well in smart company and I think he has been

brilliant myself.

"The few horses that have beaten him are all to the fore in the Arkle betting

and I'm convinced he will get a lot closer to those horses once he gets some

better ground."

Ahead of a bid for glory in the Irish Independent Arkle at Cheltenham in

March, in which Royal Shakespeare appeared among 49 entries on Monday, Gollings

said:

"I'm not convinced Cheltenham is his ideal track but we would look pretty

stupid if we hadn't entered him and it came up good ground in March.

"He seems to run his best races on flatter tracks like Aintree, Punchestown

and Kempton. He was just touched off as a novice hurdler by Brave Inca at

Punchestown.

"If it looked like it was going to be a warm race and soft ground we would

probably wait for Aintree and Punchestown with him."