Donald McCain is hopeful that he will be able to get a run into 2011 Champion Hurdle contender Peddlers Cross before the Cheltenham Festival after the unbeaten superstar was ruled out of this weekend’s engagements.

The unbeaten Fighting Fifth winner was being aimed at targets at Ffos Las and Sandown on Saturday, however after coughing on Wednesday morning he was ruled out of running anywhere.

That came after he missed out on a trip to Haydock last month and he could now take his chance in the Morebattle Hurdle at Kelso or the Kingwell Hurdle at Wincanton later this month.

"He's fine this morning and has been for a walk.  He just gave a little cough on Wednesday morning and it was a case of I either needed to gallop him or give him a couple of quiet days,” McCain explained.

"I didn't want to gallop him and if I didn't gallop him he couldn't run this weekend. It's as simple as that.

"There are the races at Kelso and Wincanton that we were looking at for Overturn, but Peddlers Cross could conceivably run in one of those.

"I know I can take him straight to Cheltenham if I needed to, but I would definitely prefer to run him.

"I like running horses and I like horses to go racing and I think part of the problem is that because Haydock was off, he's been grafting for a long time without going racing."