Marsh Wren will need more rain at Haydock if she is to take her chance in the Betfair Chase on Saturday.
Stuart Edmunds’ highly consistent mare has won nine of her 15 starts to date, taking a further three places and scoring over fences, hurdles and in a bumper.
She is a two-time listed winner, finishing third in the Grade Two Mares’ Chase at Cheltenham last year, a run that was followed by success in the same Bud Booth Mares’ Chase at Market Rasen, which will act as a plan B if Haydock proves not gentle enough.
“She won’t run unless we get a lot of rain. If we do, we’ll definitely go,” Edmunds said.
“It’s a matter of the softer the better for her, to get some of the speed out of the others, so we’ll wait for that and when it comes we’ll run.
“The mare pursuit at Market Rasen is the other race for her, which she won last year, so we entered her for that.”
Should Marsh skip Wren Haydock in favor of Market Rasen, there will be a year between races as a bruised foot disrupted the remainder of her campaign last winter.
“She had a badly bruised foot after her win last year (at Market Rasen) and it affected the bone. We had to be very patient and we couldn’t get her back in time to run,” Edmunds added.
“It was nothing dramatic and she is in good shape now. She went to Worcester for a day and had a good gallop.
“She worked very well there two weeks ago, so we are very happy with her.
“She is a very good mare and she is at her best when the ground is very soft, so we are keeping our fingers crossed for rain.”
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