Dirty scope rules Waiting Patiently out of Exeter feature

Plans on holds for Ruth Jefferson’s stable star.

Future plans for Waiting Patiently are up in the air after an unsatisfactory scope ruled him out of Tuesday’s Coral Haldon Gold Cup.

Ruth Jefferson was hoping to see her stable star make his seasonal reappearance in the Grade Two feature at Exeter, but he was not declared on Monday morning.

“It’s very frustrating, but these things happen and there’s nothing we can do about it,” said the Norton-based trainer.

“We’d had this race at the back of our minds for a while and with the ground coming up soft, it looked a nice starting point and would have hopefully told us a lot about where we’re heading for the rest of the season with him.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be.

”

So brilliant when defeating Cue Card in the Ascot Chase in February 2018, Waiting Patiently could never rediscover that form last season.

The eight-year-old unseated Brian Hughes early on in the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day before filling the runner-up spot behind Cyrname when defending his crown at Ascot and finishing third behind Min in the Melling Chase at Aintree.

Jefferson added: “I haven’t thought about where we’re going to go now, to be honest.

We hoped this race would tell us what our next race would be.

“We couldn’t run him after a bad scope as that would have told us nothing and it could have mucked up his season.

“We’ll have to go back to the drawing board, but we need to concentrate on getting him cleaned up and sorted first.”

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