Love return on hold

Stef Liddiard has had to put Mac Love’s return to action on hold as her string are under the weather.

She had hoped to run the seven-year-old, formerly trained by Jeremy Noseda, in the KBC Supreme Stakes at Goodwood on Tuesday.

However, as her horses had been running below expectations she decided to have them scoped and Mac Love was found to be affected.

“I’ve got a bit of a cloud over the stable at the moment. We’ve had a couple of bad scopes so he won’t be going to Goodwood, I’m afraid,” said the Berkshire trainer.

“He’s been working like a dream but you can’t argue with scope results. I’ve had a few shocking bad runs of late, so I’ve had them scoped this morning and they’ve got what amounts to sore throats.

“None of them will be going anywhere for a couple of weeks. I’ve got to take the pressure of them sit tight and let them get better, but we’ll be back.

“I really rate Mac Love and believe he would have nearly won on Tuesday.

“He’s been off the track a good while. He’s a bit of a pet for the owner (Vimal Khosla) who thought he wasn’t taking his racing very well, but the horse didn’t take to retirement. Thankfully I ended up with the horse and he’s a gem.

“I’ve had him three months and was aiming him at the Goodwood race. That was the last race he won (in 2004) and he ran well in it last year.

“They don’t appear to be sick but appear to be reacting to something in the environment.

“We’re in a bit of a race against time with Mac Love as he likes good fast ground. There’s the Park Stakes at Doncaster next month and possibly a race at Newmarket but I think he likes a sharp seven.”