Nuts Well team have Wetherby under consideration

Old Roan winner was not entered for rescheduled Peterborough Chase.

A Christmas outing at Wetherby is under consideration for Nuts Well after connections decided against running in the rescheduled Peterborough Chase at Cheltenham.

One of just a handful of horses trained in Northumberland by Ann Hamilton and owned by her husband Ian, the nine-year-old charged home to cause an upset in the Old Roan Chase at Aintree in October.

Nuts Well was declared to run in the Peterborough Chase at Huntingdon, but the meeting was abandoned due to flooding and he was not even entered for the race after it was switched to Prestbury Park last week.

“I’m not sure Cheltenham would be his track, to be honest,” said Ian Hamilton.

“Maybe if were a bit younger we might have had a go, but we’ve got a lot of sheep and cattle around at the moment and we can’t just go away and leave them two or three days. The horse has never stayed away overnight either.

“There aren’t many races for him and Ann and I are getting on! It’s a long way to drive to some of those places down south, but we might have to think about it at some stage.”

Considering immediate plans, Hamilton added: “We’ll probably look at Wetherby – either the Rowland Meyrick over three miles on Boxing Day, or probably more likely the two-mile race (Castleford Chase) the day after, as you’d think it will be soft or heavy ground.

“He likes better ground ideally. I know he won on soft at Aintree, but I don’t think it was as soft as they were saying.

“I think the ideal track would be Kempton, but it’s a long way and I don’t know if he’s good enough for a race like the King George and we’ve missed the entry stage for that anyway.

“I do think he’ll stay three miles no bother, especially if the ground is decent on a flat track.

“Aintree is ideal for him really, but they’re not racing again until April.”

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