Bowl beckons for Impek

Impek is set for a step up in trip in next month’s Betfair Bowl at Aintree.

The 10-year-old finished third in last week’s Ryanair Chase over two miles and five furlongs at the Cheltenham Festival, missing out on the runner-up spot after a bad mistake at the second-last.

Trainer Henrietta Knight is now planning to tackle the three-mile-one-furlong Betfair Bowl rather than the shorter Melling Chase.

She said: “My feeling is that they might go too quick for him over two and a half miles on the Mildmay course and that we should aim him at the old Martell Cup.

“I thought he ran very well at Cheltenham where a terrible mistake at the second-last took the wind out of his sails.”