Sams in town for Cheltenham heat
Having signed off last season with an impressive victory at Ayr’s Scottish Grand National meeting in April, the seven-year-old made a winning comeback over smaller obstacles at Kelso early last month.
A tilt at the Scottish Grand National is unsurprisingly already high on Whillans’ agenda for his stable star, but he is first keen to see how he fares in the Grade Three contest.
Whillans said: “He’s in good fettle and we were delighted with him at Kelso.
“We decided to run him over hurdles to try and keep his handicap mark over fences down before we went for a decent race.
“His big target is the Scottish National in the spring, so he might go back over hurdles after tomorrow, but we’ll just have to see how he gets on.
“I’ve never had a winner at Cheltenham, but I had a horse that finished second there a few years ago. I’ve only had two or three runners.
“This horse goes there in good form and hopefully he has a good chance.
“We’ll assess where we are with him afterwards.”
Samstown features in a 10-runner field, with Nicky Henderson’s Hadrian’s Approach heading the weights on his first start since landing the bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown in late April.
Kim Bailey saddles the veteran chaser Charingworth, successful on his latest visit to Cheltenham last month, and amateur rider Harry Bannister keeps the mount.
Other contenders include Tom George’s hat-trick-seeking The Ould Lad, popular grey Pigeon Island and Benbane Head, aboard whom Richard Johnson received a lengthy suspension for taking the wrong course at Exeter a week ago.
