Noel Chance said today that Looks Like Trouble was 'as fit as we can get him' ahead of the Cheltenham Gold Cup winner`s reappearance at Down Royal on Saturday.
Looks Like Trouble was ferried to Northern Ireland this morning for the rescheduled James Nicholson Wine Merchant Champion Chase, in which he will clash with the Gold Cup runner-up Florida Pearl.
Chance said: 'The horse is in good shape. He`s as fit as we can get him, and it`s fingers crossed.'
The #110,000 contest, which will be shown live on Channel 4, had been postponed from last week. Chance admitted he had found that unsettling.
He said: 'You put a race back by a week and you think it`s no big deal. But it is, because we`ve been getting this horse ready since mid-July to run in this race and suddenly the race doesn`t happen.
'The you have to work him again twice, school him, and you`re opening up the risk of injury all the time. It might not have unnerved the horse, but it unnerved me.'
Chance expects Looks Like Trouble to clash with See More Business in the Pertemps King George VI Chase, a race in which he was pulled up early last season.
The trainer had bypassed an early opportunity to tackle Paul Nicholls`s horse in the Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby last month.
He explained: 'I`ve certainly no regrets about not taking on See More Business at Wetherby because both of us would have had a very hard race. It would have been a head-to-head from a mile and a quarter out. The only way to beat him is to take him on early.
'The horse was so tired after his run at Wetherby last year that he nearly laid down in the parade ring. And I was determined not to let that happen again, as I didn`t want to leave the King George or any other race behind.
'That`s why we were always going to run in Northern Ireland, as win or not, he won`t have such a hard race.
'At Down Royal we are likely to make our own running. If we`re beaten it will probably be because we were always behind or Florida Pearl nips around us at the last and does us for a bit of toe.'
Flagship Uberalles, who joined Chance from Nicholls over the summer, puts his stamina on trial for the King George when he makes his reappearance in the Grade One John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase on December 10 over two and half miles.
Chance said 'I`m going to run him in the John Durkan just to put to bed, once and for all, whether he stays or doesn`t stay. If he sluices in, or runs as though he stays well, perhaps he might run at Kempton. It will give us a reasonable guide.
'If it works, it works, If it doesn`t no harm done, and he`d go for the Castleford Chase at Wetherby which is two miles.'
