NEXT month’s Relkeel Hurdle at Cheltenham is the likely next port of call for Rock On Ruby following his satisfactory comeback run at Wincanton on Saturday.

After a brief chasing career was abandoned, the 2012 Champion Hurdle hero, pictured, signed off last season with a narrow defeat at the hands of The New One at Aintree and was top-weight for last weekend’s Elite Hurdle.

It proved too stern a task, but he was far from disgraced in finishing third and is set to step back up in distance at Prestbury Park on December 13.

“Two miles around Wincanton was always going to be on the sharp side and certainly that’s what it looked like turning in – he just got caught for a bit of toe,” Seaborough trainer Harry Fry said on his blog on the Stan James website.

“But, true to form, he never stopped trying and he was staying on all the time at the end. That really sums up where we’re headed with him and that’s up in trip.

“We’ve got the Relkeel Hurdle on StanJames.com International Day next in mind for him. It was won by none other than More Of That last year on the way to winning the World Hurdle.

“I’m not setting out any long-term plans for him just yet but that’s hopefully our next stepping stone.”