No rain proving to be a pain for Sixmilebridge

Fergal O’Brien has been left with little option but to look to Huntingdon’s Sky Bet Peterborough Chase to set up a Ladbrokes King George VI Chase bid with Sixmilebridge, as a lack of rain continues to make race-planning problematic for trainers.

With an early-season outing in Carlisle’s Colin Parker already shelved and a trip to Ascot next weekend for the Ladbrokes 1965 Chase looking unlikely, the Ravenswell Farm handler is short of options to get a first run of the season into last year’s Scilly Isles scorer.

Therefore a trip to Huntingdon on December 6 could be the only viable option for a tune-up ahead of an intended bid at Kempton’s Boxing Day showpiece.

O’Brien said: “We could go to Ascot on Saturday week, but that is looking pretty unlikely, so I think we may have to go to the Peterborough Chase.

“We’re going to have to get thinking about our options because we’re struggling a little bit at the moment and Huntingdon is probably the only place we can go really if we want to try get a run into him before the King George.

“We’d love to try and stretch him out and see how we go – give him a swing at three miles in the King George is what we would like to do.

“If we want to do that and with Ascot not looking like it’s getting much rain, hopefully Huntingdon will be fine and we can get him out.”

An Ascot outing also looks unlikely for Aintree Red Rum Handicap winner Ryan’s Rocket, who is set to bypass the Hurst Park Handicap Chase in favour of attempting to win the same race he won at Newbury’s Coral Gold Cup meeting.

O’Brien added: “He’s in at Ascot, but he’s more than likely to go back to Newbury the week after for the race he won last year.”