Best Mate is chasing a fourth Cheltenham Gold Cup win in March

The gelding was found to be under the weather after losing to Beef Or Salmon in last week's Lexus Chase in Ireland and was put on a course of antibiotics.

But assistant trainer Terry Biddlecombe said on Monday: "I fed him this morning and he tried to knock me over.

"He has only coughed for a couple of days - a dry cough, no runny nose. He is in excellent form and will be ridden out on Tuesday.

"It was one of those unfortunate things. He had two or three things go wrong with him," Biddlecombe added of his defeat at Leopardstown.

"But come Cheltenham and good ground, it will be a different story."