Peddlers Cross to run in Jewson Novices' Chase, confirms Donald McCain
After long deliberations over his Cheltenham Festival target, Donald McCain has decided to run Peddlers Cross in the Jewson Novices' Chase.
The seven-year-old holds entries both for Grade 1 Racing Post Arkle Challenge Trophy Chase and Grade 2 Jewson Novices' Chase.
However, the trainer finally preferred Jewson Novices' Chase, avoiding Peddlers Cross’ another clash with Sprinter Sacre.
The old rivals last met in the williamhill.com Novices' Chase at Kempton where Nicky Henderson’s trainee outplayed Peddlers Cross by staggering 16 lengths in December last year.
Sprinter Sacre did not let McCain’s trainee fancy his chances. After gaining a decent lead early on, the six-year-old sustained his advantage till the finish.
Peddlers Cross, who was 4-5 favourite, chased the winner in the early hours, but failed to surpass him. Sprinter Sacre perpetuated his good run and sealed an emphatic victory in the Betfair Super Saturday Chase at Newbury last month.
With Nicky Henderson’s inform trainee all set to unleash his talent in next Tuesday's Racing Post Arkle Chase, McCain decided not to go for the same event, making sure that the two sprinters don’t meet at Cheltenham.
"After a lot of discussion between myself, Jason [Maguire] and owner Tim Leslie, it has been decided that Peddlers Cross will head to the Jewson Novices' Chase. It has been a long road back from the setback he had at Kempton and we feel that at this stage
the 2m4f event will be more beneficial to him in the long term,” McCain wrote on his Betfair blog.
He added:
"Because of his problems after Kempton, we haven't been able to school him as intensively as we would have liked and feel that going half a stride slower in the longer race makes sense."
After his embarrassing defeat at Kempton over Christmas, Peddlers Cross drifted out to 11-2 for the Arkle. On the other hand, most of the bookies have offered him the highest odds of 11 to 4 for the Jewson Novices´ Chase.
His trainer and supports are expecting him to do well on the 2m4f track, but it will not be a straightforward outing for him, as the likes of Cristal Bonus and For Non Stop are ready to spoil his party.
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