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Well-regarded colt pleased trainer on delayed York reappearance.

Brentford Hope  is set to run at Kempton for the next stage of his education following his comeback run at York.

Trainer Richard Hughes has a novice contest on the all-weather surface at the Sunbury track in mind for the son of Camelot, after all but ruling out a race at Ascot on Saturday.

Hughes gave Brentford Hope an entry in the Chertsey Handicap – but has warned he will not go for the mile-and-a-half heat unless the heavens open, which seems unlikely.

"He will only run if it rains and I doubt it will," said Hughes.

"There's a novice at Kempton coming up. It doesn't look like I'm going to get the ground I need at Ascot, so I'll probably run at Kempton. He's in good form."

Brentford Hope went into many notebooks when making a winning debut in tremendous style at Newmarket in October.

He was even considered a Derby prospect, but a setback meant he only made his seasonal reappearance at York last month, when he was fifth to Pablo Escobarr, having been slowly away before moving smoothly into contention.

Hughes was satisfied with the effort and is looking forward to the future.

"He needs racing. He's very immature. He was raw in York after a long lay-off – it was like starting from scratch again," said the Upper Lambourn handler.

"We nursed him back and we got good ground so it was a good introduction.

"He's been given a mark of 94. We'll work our way up."