Mont Ventoux and Renegade Fighter’s first-up performances at Te Rapa on May 4 have given Rudy Liefting grounds for optimism for their winter jumping campaigns, beginning with their next assignments at Hawera on Sunday.

A last-start placing in restricted open grade makes Mont Ventoux a key player for the Holdem Contracting Legend Hawera Riders Maiden Hurdle (2800m), while Renegade Fighter will tackle the PCL Wineera Brothers Ltd Maurice Campbell Steeplechase (3400m).

A seven-time winner on the flat, Mont Ventoux has shown promise over hurdles with four placings from his six attempts so far. The most recent of those was his resuming run at Te Rapa earlier this month, where he finished second and was beaten by less than two lengths by the top-flight hurdler English Gambler.

“You had to be happy with that,” Liefting said. “The horse that beat him is obviously a top hurdler, so I was happy that he ended up as close to him as he did.

“I told the rider (Nick Downs) not to go chasing after English Gambler, because that would just play into his hands. I just wanted him to sit back and ride his own race at a nice, even tempo. We obviously didn’t want a gut-buster in his first run of the campaign.

“I didn’t think we could catch English Gambler, so our only chance would be if he made a mistake, which he didn’t. But running second to him was a good effort.”

Liefting has been pleased with the eight-year-old son of Nom Du Jeu throughout the fortnight since that Te Rapa run.

“He’s been good,” he said. “He’s a pretty straightforward horse – a big eater and fairly sound, which always makes it easy. We never miss any work with him. He’s heading into this weekend in good order.”

If Mont Ventoux continues on his upward trajectory through the next couple of months, Liefting is open to the possibility of venturing to Christchurch for the $100,000 Grand National Hurdle (4200m) at Riccarton on August 10.

“We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves, so we’ll just take it step by step for now,” the Pukekohe trainer said. “But hopefully we might end up in a nice open hurdle race a bit further down the track.

“Everyone who has a hurdler that’s shown any kind of ability would love to make it to a National or a Great Northern (4200m). I think the National down in Christchurch might actually be a race that would suit this horse really well. He’s been down there twice already to run in the Winter Cup (Gr.3, 1600m), so we know that he travels well.

“We need to concentrate on getting a maiden win on the board first, but if he keeps running good races, we might have a crack. You only live once.”

Renegade Fighter made his steeplechase debut at Te Rapa on May 4. He made mistakes at multiple jumps but stayed on his feet and finished fourth, beaten by 24 lengths – a margin significantly inflated by the 19-length winner Hey Happy.

“He’s still new to it and his jumping obviously needs a bit of improvement,” Liefting said. “But it could have been worse – he got around. Watching the replay the next day, it wasn’t actually as bad as I first thought when I watched the race live.

“I think he’s got the makings of a nice steeplechaser. He’s another good, sound horse that doesn’t miss work. We’re hoping for a better showing this time around.

“The jockey has got to know him a bit better now, and if there’s a bit of a slower tempo, it might help him to round off his fences a bit better.”