ALAN King hopes to have a jockey in place to ride leading Stan James Champion Hurdle contender Yanworth by the end of the weekend.

With owner JP McManus' retained rider, and potential partner of the Grade One winner, Barry Geraghty, missing the Cheltenham Festival through injury, the Barbury Castle Stables handler is now seeking a replacement for his stable star.

Since being beaten by Yorkhill in last year's Neptune, which his is only defeat over hurdles, the seven-year-old, who is as short as 100-30 for the two-mile prize on March 14, has won each of his three starts this term, the most recent in the Kingwell Hurdle at Wincanton last month.

King said: "I don't know who is going to ride him and we need to speak at the weekend, as we do need to find out.

"Obviously I would like them to come and have a sit on him. No one has ridden him over a hurdle bar Barry Geraghty, so whoever rides him we want to come and school him and possibly ride a bit of work.

"The good thing is he has come out of Wincanton very well. We gave him a thorough check-over after Wincanton. The vet, physio and Dan Horsford, who rides him every day, are all delighted with him.

"He didn't have a great preparation for that (Wincanton), but I just felt we needed to get a bit more match practice in him and fortunately he has come out of that very well. I don't think the cheekpieces did him any harm. It was just to make him a bit more slicker through the air.

"He is a horse that is totally genuine, but he does like to have a look around. He is a bit slow over a hurdle when he gets in tight and I did think at Wincanton he was much sharper. If anything, he does jump a hurdle like a fence.

"This is a more suitable test for him. Wincanton was Plan B as we were going to go to Sandown, but we had that hold up and I couldn't do that. It was Wincanton or nowhere. I think he has won despite the tracks."

Although riding plans for McManus' trio of Champion Hurdle runners has yet to be confirmed, trainer Nicky Henderson expects Noel Fehily to step in for the ride aboard Buveur D'Air, who made a successful transition back to hurdles in a Listed event at Sandown.

He said: "I suspect he will. I saw JP on Monday and I don't think anybody has really discussed it as there are so many horses involved in the conundrum. We've got My Tent Or Yours in there as well. Mark Walsh will come over from Ireland to ride a number of them (McManus horses). There are a lot of jockeys that do know some of the horses though."

The Seven Barrows handler, who will also be represented in the race by Brain Power, believes ground conditions will dictate the finishing order of his runners.

He said: "We were pleased with Brain Power's gallop at Kempton on Saturday. The whole thing hinges on the going. That was beautiful ground at Kempton and Brain Power loved it.

"We know it will be good to soft on the first day. If it is softer than that Buveur D'Air would have the advantage, if we got better than good to soft then the advantage would go to the other horse and My Tent Or Yours sits somewhere in the middle."

Winter Escape will attempt to his career back on track in the Randox Health County Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

Meanwhile King plans to run the lightly-raced six-year-old in the Grade Three contest, for which he was allotted 10st 8lb following the release of the weights on Wednesday.

Winter Escape was unbeaten last season, culminating in a Grade Two success at Kempton, but the JP McManus-owned gelding has not been seen since he finished down the field in the Greatwood Hurdle at Cheltenham in November.

King said: "He's been under the weather since the Greatwood but he's back in very good form now.

"He will almost certainly go for the County Hurdle.

"He probably wants decent ground. I wouldn't run him if it was very testing.

"He's back in good order and I still think he is a very good horse.

"It is not an ideal preparation, having not run since November, but we had no option.

"We had high hopes at the start of the year, but he was pretty sick after the Greatwood and it has took a long time to get him back.

"The weights will go up a fair bit, I imagine, but he looks like he will get in."