RACING:DONALD McCAIN is keeping everything crossed Peddlers Cross can avoid any mishaps and make a winning start to his chasing career at Bangor today.

The six-year-old won his first seven starts under Rules and went down fighting when eventually losing his unbeaten record at the hands of Hurricane Fly in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham.

He ran below-par on his final outing of last season at Aintree in the spring, but McCain has been thrilled with his star performer since his summer break and he starts out in the Golden Bear Beginners’ Chase today.

Peddlers Cross will be long odds-on to beat what look three inferior rivals, but McCain is taking nothing for granted. “I can’t say I’m particularly looking forward to it!” said McCain.

“This has obviously been his target for a while, it’s a grand track and the ground should be lovely, so let’s just hope we can get it out of the way in the right way.”

With stable jockey Jason Maguire injured, Peddlers Cross will be partnered by Timmy Murphy. “Timmy came in and sat on him the other day and it was fine,” McCain added.

“It’s all a bit different for him as Jason is the only one who has ridden him under Rules, but there’s nothing we can do about that and it shouldn’t be a problem.

“We won’t make any plans until we get this race out of the way. As we saw at Exeter last week with Menorah (unseating Richard Johnson), these things are never as straightforward as people think.”

Due to take on Peddlers Cross at Bangor was last season’s Supreme Novices’ Hurdle winner Al Ferof, owned by Golden Bear chairman John Hales. But connections had a late change of heart due to Ruby Walsh’s unavailability and he will now run at Cheltenham this weekend instead.

“Bangor was our preferred option but he’s not running because Ruby is suspended and we really want him to ride,” said Hales. “We were hoping that he would get the ban overturned at last week’s appeal but that didn’t happen, so he’ll run at Cheltenham on Sunday instead.

“Ruby has done all the schooling on the horse and knows him well, so we think it’s important he can ride.”