Peddlers Cross set to make a comeback
Irish challenger, Peddlers Cross, is all set to make his return to horseracing, when he will take on some quality runners in the Haydock's Champion Hurdle Trial.
He has been out of action for quite some time and might be a touch rusty at the moment. However, he has got a phenomenal record and there is no doubt over his ability to be competitive at the highest level.
He last raced in March 2012 and entered the competition with a starting price of 5 to 2. He was the favourite to succeed in the all important event and his fans would have been expecting him to be competitive from the start until the end.
Things did not work out in his favour though, as he had to settle for the eighth place overall, which was disappointing for his team. He will need to forget that bad performance and focus on the future.
The eight-year-old gelding has participated in a total of 13 races, winning nine of them whereas finished as a runner up on a couple of times. This clearly shows what he is capable of achieving in the sport.
His trainer, Donald McCain, is a touch concerned about the fitness of his challenger, so he does not want to risk him in a race over three miles. Therefore, he has decided to be a touch careful right now.
According to him, “I can't go straight over three miles with him, which rules out the Cleeve, so now we've got to go to Haydock. At this stage I genuinely don't know what race he might run in at the festival but I can't go straight from two miles to three,
so we'd need to find something in between first.”
There was a chance for Peddlers Cross to meet Oscar Whisky in a 2 mile, 4 furlong event at Cheltenham, which would have given him a good practice.
However, the competition was abandoned due to the weather conditions and McCain was disappointed because of that. He stated, “Losing the Cheltenham race has messed things up. It would have been the ideal race as I was looking forward to finding out if he's
a World Hurdle horse.”
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