Power target for Attaglance

Attaglance is being aimed at the Paddy Power Gold Cup at Cheltenham on November 16.

Malcolm Jefferson’s seven-year-old won the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Hurdle at the 2012 Cheltenham Festival before adding an Aintree Listed success to his tally.

Last season he went novice chasing but proved very disappointing and ended up running in the Liverpool Hurdle at the Grand National meeting, finishing well behind Solwhit.

However, he demonstrated much better form on his seasonal return at Perth when going down narrowly to Double Ross and Jefferson is hoping he can take advantage of his 17lb lower handicap mark over the bigger obstacles.

“I think we’ll aim Attaglance at the Paddy Power,” said Jefferson.

“That might be a good race for him. He’s a second-season chaser and horses like him have a good record.

“We know he’s got the ability, he’s rated nearly 150 over hurdles, so when you look at his mark over fences he looks well in.

“He shaped much more like his old self at Perth and on his hurdles form, he’d have to have a chance.

“He wouldn’t run before then as he likes to be fresh.”

However, one horse who will not be heading for the first major handicap of the season is Charlie Longsdon’s Grandads Horse.

Winner of the Bobby Renton Chase at Wetherby last week, the seven-year-old has risen to a mark of 140 but Longsdon is keen not to overface him this term.

“We did consider the Paddy Power but we’ll maybe go for that next year,” said Longsdon.

“He’s still very much a novice in jumping terms and he makes one bad mistake in every race still, which you can’t get away with in a race like that.

“Now he’s got a mark of 140, he’s eligible for novice handicaps. There’s options at Ascot (November 2) or Sandown (November 9) for him.

“He’s done fantastically well to win three races considering he had a year off.”