Alan King says Mille Chief is "up against it" in his bid to make the Triumph Hurdle line-up.

The horse has made a slight improvement from the setback that prevented him from running at Kempton this weekend but King still believes he faces a race against time.

The four-year-old, favourite for the triumph Hurdle for most of the winter, was ruled out of the Adonis Hurdle having been found to be lame and missed an earlier target at Huntingdon through a dirty scope.

Nothing has shown up on X-rays but King reported him to be "hopping lame" on Saturday.

"He's slightly better today but he's still not 100%," said King.

"The vet is going to have another look at him tomorrow but I'd say we were up against it."

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