Co-trainer Josh Guerriero has warned leading fancy Iroko is far from certain to run in the Ladbrokes Trophy at Kempton on Saturday.
The seven-year-old was expected to complete his Randox Grand National preparations at the weekend but with little rain forecast, connections have worries over the going.
“He’s very well, we’re ready to rock and roll but the only reservation is the ground is drying up pretty quickly there and it’s good to soft, good in places,” Guerriero told Tuesday’s Nick Luck Daily Podcast.
“Unfortunately, we’re not a definite runner and might have to go to Kelso the week after for the Listed chase there as there’s some rain about. It’s very annoying, we’d love to run at Kempton but with the ground the way it is it probably isn’t ideal.
“We need rain. If it was good to soft we’d probably give it a go but any quicker than that we’ll have to look after him. He’s a big horse, a real galloper and he needs some soft ground really.”
Connections are confident that there’s more to come from Iroko as his stamina is stretched out further.
“We’ve always felt that. His run at Aintree over three miles he was doing his best work at the end, the other day at Cheltenham was a great run, we were keeping him sharp and he ran very well, he had 12 stone on his back and he’s learning plenty.
“We’re just trying to get some good experience of fast-run handicaps into him. He hasn’t had much of that over fences, and I was very happy with the run and he finished very well.”
Guerriero is also confident that their stable star has many of the qualities required to shine at Aintree in April.
“He’s so sure-footed with his jumping, he’s been unbelievable from day one. He's very, very accurate, he has a great mind, he’s very relaxed and races very relaxed and stays very, very well. When he won the Martin Pipe he looked beat coming down the hill then his stamina has come into play and he stayed on up the hill,” he added.
“He stays very well, jumps very well and has a very good mind.”
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