Donald McCain defends Peddlers

Donald McCain has denied running scared of Sprinter Sacre ahead of next week's Cheltenham Festival and says the decision to bypass Tuesday's Arkle Chase with Peddlers Cross in favour of the 2½-mile Jewson Chase 48 hours later was taken with a long-term perspective and with the horse's future in mind. The switch of races attracted the ire of ante-post punters, with McCain having been apparently adamant only days ago that the Arkle Chase remained the intended target for last year's Champion Hurdle runner-up. "At the end of the day, we've got to do what we feel is in the best interests of the horse and my owner," McCain told the Guardian's Cheltenham Festival podcast. "I had a good talk with him, Jason [Maguire] and so on and we just decided for the horse and for his future, [given] where he's at at the moment after his Kempton run, that this is the best way forwards. "It's not really a case of him not pleasing. His work's good, it's always good. It's just I felt I'd have been more comfortable if I'd been able to school him more to sharpen him up having made that mistake at Kempton and because of the issues that we had after Kempton I haven't been able to school him as hard as I want. "The horse comes first, pure and simple. It didn't take an awful lot of working out in the end. It's not to do with competition, that's irrelevant. He's a belting good horse and we've never been scared of taking a horse on. But we're hoping to have him for a number of years, not just one day next week, and we've got to look after him." McCain issued positive updates about the remainder of his Festival team, including Gold Cup hope Weird Al who has not been seen since finishing behind Kauto Star and Long Run in Haydock's Betfair Chase. "Everything's gone smoothly with Weird Al," McCain said. "We thought the best thing was to go straight to Cheltenham and touch wood it's gone swimmingly. He's a quality horse with a high cruising speed. He jumps and he stays. There's some good horses in there, but he'll run a big race."