National trial for Junior
David Pipe’s nine-year-old has completed the rare double of landing prizes at the Cheltenham Festival and Royal Ascot, and has not been seen on the racecourse since last year’s Royal meeting.
The nine-year-old is set for an imminent return to the fray, ahead of his run at Aintree in April.
Champion trainer Paul Nicholls has potential top-weight Neptune Collonges engaged, while Irish champion Willie Mullins has three possible raiders in Uncle Junior, Quiscover Fontaine and Some Target.
Other interesting possibles include 2009 Grand National winner Mon Mome, Welsh National runner-up Giles Cross and Evan Williams-trained pair Deep Purple and Cappa Bleu.
Hold On Julio, who had been ante-post favourite, was not among the list of possibles.
Trainer Alan King has revealed the lightly-raced nine-year-old may go for the Racing Plus Chase at Kempton on Saturday week, or wait for Cheltenham.
“We have entered Julio for the National, and the weights for Aintree are released tomorrow, so we will wait and see how he has been assessed before making firm plans,” said the Barbury Castle trainer.
“If we do decide to aim him at the National it might be worth heading for Kempton as that would give him a bit more time to prepare for Aintree than if we went to the Festival.
