Jeremy Scott is praying the forecast rain materialises ahead of the Ladbrokes King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day so he can run Dashel Drasher.
With declarations having to be made on Thursday, three days before the race, the Somerset trainer may have to take a leap of faith the ground will be suitable for his stable star to take on the cream of three-mile chases in the Christmas showpiece.
Scott would like to run into Dashel Drasher before the end of this month as he has plans for the horse early next year that include the Grade One Betfair Ascot Chase he won at the Berkshire track in February.
“He’s very good but the forecast rain would definitely need to come,” he said.
“I’m in that awful position of having to make a decision hoping God provides us with some rain. Trouble is you have to declare on Thursday so you are guessing.
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“If it was good to soft that would be absolutely fine. If the rain didn’t come we definitely wouldn’t run.
“We’d probably have to declare but then you’ve got jockey issues. I don’t want to tie somebody up riding the horse and mess up their Boxing Day if he doesn’t run and they can’t go elsewhere.
“It’s going to be very awkward but I’ll have to get the best advice I can on the weather.”
Scott reports Dashel Drasher to be in good form following his seasonal reappearance at Ascot last month when he was third to Lostintranslation in the Grade Two Chanelle Pharma 1965 Chase.
“The horse is very well and we’ve got some targets all the way through January and February and if we don’t run realistically before the end of December it almost messes up our plans,” he said.
“We’d like to get a run into the horse. We shall see. If God doesn’t provide we’ll have to come up with another plan.
“We’re working back from the Ascot race in February, there’s that nice valuable race at Lingfield if the weather behaves. That will be a suitable race for him and there’s the Silviniaco Conti (at Kempton) which unless it was very soft it would probably be too quick for him round there.
“We’ll see. It’s a nice headache to have and we’re lucky to have a nice horse to run in these races, so I’m not complaining.”