Presentandcounting set to be sole McCain runner at Cheltenham

Plate target at big meeting for consistent eight-year-old.

Donald McCain might have trained more winners than any other trainer in Britain this season, but he looks set to send just a solitary runner to this year’s Cheltenham Festival.

The Cholmondeley handler is enjoying a memorable campaign, with his current tally of 129 winners leaving him 17 clear of 12-times champion trainer Paul Nicholls.

But McCain made just a handful of entries for the showpiece meeting in the Cotswolds, which gets under way in less than a fortnight’s time, and his team could yet be whittled down just one.

Presentandcounting is the horse in question. The eight-year-old won five times over fences between May and September of last year, but has been off the track since finishing third at Chepstow in October.

Hugely consistent, the Presenting gelding has not been out of the first three in his career.

“We’ll have one runner at Cheltenham, I think – Presentandcounting in the Plate (Handicap Chase),” McCain said.

“His owner John Turner is a big supporter of Cheltenham and the horse has had his winter break and is ready to crack on with again.”

Donald McCain will not have a large team at Cheltenham
Donald McCain will not have a large team at Cheltenham (Mike Egerton/PA)

McCain feels he could have had more runners had the now defunct novice handicap chase still been part of the Festival programme.

L’Antartique (2007), Hunt Ball (2012), A Plus Tard (2019) and Imperial Aura (2020) are among the notable previous winners of a race that was replaced by the Mares’ Chase at last year’s Festival.

“If the novice handicap chase was still there I could have had about four runners,” McCain added.

“They got rid of that race, which is a shame because it produced a lot of a good horses.”

The shortest priced of McCain’s Festival entries at around 16-1 is Richmond Lake, who is entered for the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Hurdle.

However, the six-year-old – who was last seen finishing second to leading Supreme Novices’ Hurdle contender Jonbon at Haydock – is declared for Saturday’s bet365 Premier Novices’ Hurdle at Kelso.

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