Connections opt to go the handicap route with Long Run

Long Run could tackle the £100,000 Kempton Park Chase at the Sunbury track on February 22 as a step towards a crack at the Crabbie’s Grand National.

Owner Robert Waley-Cohen is keen to go for the world’s greatest steeplechase at Aintree in April with his 2011 Cheltenham Gold Cup hero.

Long Run has failed to trouble the judge in three starts this term and unseated his amateur rider, Waley-Cohen’s son Sam, at the final fence when in fifth place and out of contention in the King George VI Chase at Kempton – a race he has won twice.