Nicholls out to checkmate rival

The experts are lining up to suggest that Best Mate might just be vulnerable at Huntingdon on Saturday, and Paul Nicholls is hoping they are right as he puts the final touches to Valley Henry's preparation for the Tote Peterborough Chase.

Tony McCoy, who has stood in for Jim Culloty for the last two King George VI Chases at Kempton, feels that Henrietta Knight's dual Gold Cup hero is beatable if Saturday's race turns into a tactical contest with no true gallop.

Culloty agrees that Best Mate needs three miles plus and a stiff track like Cheltenham to bring out his very best, but Nicholls feels that Valley Henry will be well suited by racing over two and a half miles at Huntingdon.

"I was absolutely gutted when he fell in the Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby three weeks ago, but he's come out of that race in good order and if he can't give Best Mate a race on Saturday then he isn't going to beat him in the King George."

Nicholls feels that fitting blinkers to Valley Henry could help if he does earn a tilt at the King George, but the weather is a bigger concern with regard to the options for his other good chasers this weekend.

He added: "The ground is still the biggest problem, and although the weathermen keep forecasting rain it doesn't seem to be falling in the places where we need it most. "I'm dying to get a run into Le Roi Miguel. He's done really well since last season and, provided the forecast for rain at Ascot proves accurate, then he could well carry topweight in the First National Gold Cup at Ascot on Saturday."

Meanwhile, Ascot officials are putting on a brave face in response to the fact that yet another of their biggest jump races has cut up badly.

Fans had been relishing the prospect of seeing a showdown between the champion hurdle winner Rooster Booster and the Stayers' Hurdle hero Baracouda in tomorrow's PricewaterhouseCoopers Ascot Hurdle.