Long Run© Photo Healy Racing
Haydock clerk of the course Kirkland Tellwright has warned of increasingly attritional ground conditions ahead of Saturday's Betfair Chase.
Long Run, second to Kauto Star in the race last year, will face five rivals in the contest as he aims to make a winning return to action.
Up-and-coming Charlie Hall Chase winner Silviniaco Conti heads the opposition, with Gold Cup runner-up The Giant Bolster and the enigmatic Weird Al also set to line up along with likely outsiders Cannington Brook and Wayward Prince.
However with the going at Haydock already officially soft, Tellwright is expecting further rain in the build-up to the race.
"We're due another half an inch at some point on Thursday, then 3mm or so more on Friday before it turns drier," he told sportinglife.com. "It's already soft and it's hard to see how we won't be left with some 'heavy' in the ground if the rain arrives as forecast - the question is how much."
