Neil Mulholland is looking forward to taking the wraps off Petrol Head in Saturday’s bet365 Morebattle Hurdle at Kelso.
The nine-year-old was formerly trained by Ronan McNally and was among the horses in the disciplinary case that led to the handler being banned from racing for 12 years.
Petrol Head switched to Katy Brown and won his last two starts but having been backed into favouritism for the Galway Hurdle, was scratched from the race on the orders of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board having failed a dope test after a win at Bellewstown the time before.
A later investigation found that he had ingested the banned substance clenbuterol when in the care of his owner.
He now returns from a 238-day break for Mulholland in a race where there’s a £100,000 bonus on offer should the winner go on and also win any race at the Cheltenham Festival.
Speaking on Friday’s Nick Luck Daily Podcast, the horse's new trainer said: "We’ve had him a while now and it’s obviously great to have a horse like him in the yard.
"He seems to have plenty of ability, he has a bit of a history but that was across the water and we're glad to have him and look forward to getting him onto the track at Kelso.
"He's running off 130, the majority of horses running off 130 wouldn’t be well treated, but we’d be happy with how he's going, working against horses that are winning and thankfully our horses are in good form.
"For me, we’ll find out a lot about him on Saturday but he's schooled well over hurdles, Conor O’Farell rode him out this morning before setting off to Kelso and was very happy with him.
"We schooled him on Wednesday morning and once again he schooled very well and was nice and slick. We schooled him a few weeks ago over the white hurdles which is something new and something different for him, and he jumped them a little bit high but on Wednesday was really good.
“He’s been winning around Bellewstown and things like that which wouldn’t be a million miles from a Kelso, and the better ground the better the chance but for us it's nice to get him out and if he were to go and do well on Saturday you have options after that."
They include two entries at Cheltenham and Mulholland added: “The bonus is very nice but for us Saturday is about getting him out. You need nice horses to win nice races and so far his form is very solid, we’re very happy with him and will worry about Saturday.
"We have water to cross under the bridge before Cheltenham."
More from Sporting Life
- Racecards
- Fast results
- Full results and free video replays
- Horse racing news
- Horse racing tips
- Horse racing features
- Download our free iOS and Android app
- Football and other sports tips
- Podcasts and video content
Safer gambling
We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.
Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.
