Barters Hill made to wait as Ben Pauling delays planned return
Poor stable form and bottomless ground conditions were the reasons given by Ben Pauling after he chose to delay the eagerly anticipated comeback run of Barters Hill.
BEN PAULING has opted to delay the planned comeback run of Barters Hill this weekend.
Trainer Pauling was hoping to welcome his stable star back to the track after a lengthy injury break.
The eight-year-old was a leading staying novice hurdler in the 2015-16 campaign but has been sidelined since being pulled up on his debut over fences at Cheltenham in November 2016.
He held entries over hurdles at Ascot and Haydock on Saturday, but the Gloucestershire trainer decided to pull the plug on the return of his talented performer due to a combination of extreme going and some his string being below par.
“I just thought that with a few in the yard having got a bit of a head cold and the ground having gone very, very soft up at Haydock, that the two didn’t match together,” said Pauling.
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“I definitely wanted to see what he is capable of and I didn’t want to be in two minds what we saw.
“I thought to be fair to the horse I’d wait until the ground dried out and the yard was 100 per cent healthy, so I knew he would run his race.”