Griffin hoping for dry weather ahead of Dingle's Cheltenham bid

Eoin Griffin is hoping for dry weather at Cheltenham ahead of next month’s festival, with the trainer hoping to send Grade 3-winner Ol Man Dingle to the Jack Richards Novices Handicap Chase.

Winner of three successive hurdle races last season, Ol Man Dingle followed up a debut chase win with a fifth career success in Cork’s Grade 3 Paddy Power Betting Shops Novice Chase in November. The seven-year-old’s last run was when finishing last of five runners behind Romeo Coolio in the Bar 1 Drinmore Chase in late November, although that run has qualified him for the Cheltenham festival handicap.

Griffin reports "we'd have liked to have got a run in between the Drinmore and Cheltenham but there was no point in running him on heavy ground and the weather has been so bad.

"We're hopeful of getting nice ground in Cheltenham and if he runs, he'll go for the Jack Richards on the Thursday. That is his target, I'm happy with his weight and the 2m4f trip around there is into his barrow.

"He is in right good order and has run well fresh in the past. We're going there positively, he is healthy and well and we're keeping our fingers crossed the rain stays away."

Ol Man Dingle has been allotted 11st 4lb for the Jack Richards Chase from his 145 rating, for which he is a 25/1 chance.