McCain hopeful of Peddlers prep

Donald McCain is keeping his fingers crossed his Champion Hurdle hope Peddlers Cross will still be able to make a racecourse appearance before Cheltenham after a setback ruled him out of this weekend's engagements.

The Fighting Fifth Hurdle winner missed his intended Champion Hurdle prep race at Haydock last month after the meeting was abandoned and he was due to line up at either Ffos Las or Sandown on Saturday.

However, after coughing on Wednesday morning, McCain ruled the unbeaten six-year-old out of both races and he could now be rerouted to Kelso's Morebattle Hurdle or the Kingwell Hurdle at Wincanton later this month.

"He's fine this morning and has been for a walk," said the Cholmondeley handler.

"He just gave a little cough on Wednesday morning and it was a case of I either needed to gallop him or give him a couple of quiet days.

"I didn't want to gallop him and if I didn't gallop him he couldn't run this weekend. It's as simple as that.

"There are the races at Kelso and Wincanton that we were looking at for Overturn, but Peddlers Cross could conceivably run in one of those.

"I know I can take him straight to Cheltenham if I needed to, but I would definitely prefer to run him.

"I like running horses and I like horses to go racing and I think part of the problem is that because Haydock was off, he's been grafting for a long time without going racing."