Cloudy Dream will have tilt at Aintree glory

The seven-year-old ran a fine race on his preferred better ground to finish second behind Altior and will now go for the Manifesto Novices’ Chase on April 6.

“He’s in grand form and he’ll go to Aintree,” said the Malton handler.

Jefferson has ruled out next month’s Merseyside meeting for Cyrus Darius after he was well beaten in the Champion Hurdle.

“He won’t go to Aintree,” said the trainer. “If he runs again this season it might be at Ayr for the Scottish Champion Hurdle.”

Jefferson is set to drop Double W’s down in trip after he ran out of stamina in the closing stages of the Close Brothers Novices’ Handicap Chase over two and a half miles.

“He ran a great race, but didn’t quite get home. He might go to Liverpool for the Red Rum Handicap Chase (at Aintree),” he said.

“We’ll see how he is. There is a race at Ascot (April 2) he could go for, a novice handicap we are thinking about. We’ll have a look.”

Meanwhile Nietzsche, third in the Fred Winter Juvenile Hurdle for Jefferson’s rival Malton trainer Brian Ellison, will not run again this season.

“Nietzsche ran an absolute blinder to finish a very close-up third in the Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle and if he had jumped the last and landed running, who knows?” pondered Ellison who is still seeking an elusive first Festival win.

“Nevertheless, he did us proud and Danny (Cook) gave him a great ride.

“Nietzsche is one of the most likeable and consistent horses in the yard and has been a revelation since Dan Gilbert purchased him out of the 2015 Tattersalls Horses in Training sale.

“He has run 17 times for us, winning seven – four on the flat and three over hurdles – only finishing out of the first four home on three occasions.

“Following his superb effort, he is now on a well-deserved holiday.”

Ellison says Dominado, unplaced in the County Hurdle, could be stepped up in trip.

However, he was slightly frustrated with Forest Bihan’s fifth behind Altior and Cloudy Dream in the aforementioned Arkle – this, after all, is a horse that had won Doncaster’s Grade Two Lightning Novices Chase in emphatic style.

“Forest Bihan was full of beans the following day so he obviously did not have too hard a race,” he added.

“We were disappointed with his fifth-place finish though. Held up in rear, he never got into the race and a mistake three out and swerving to avoid a faller didn’t really help his cause, but he was well beaten at that stage despite staying on well up the hill. He’s better than that, but lives to fight another day.”

Meanwhile Cheltenham hero Sizing John, owned by Barnsley-born Alan Potts and his wife Ann, will run in the Coral Punchestown Gold Cup on April 26.

Plans had been fluid since the seven-year-old brilliantly won the Cheltenham Gold Cup for trainer Jessica Harrington.

But Harrington has been sufficiently satisfied with Sizing John’s well-being that she will now chart a route towards Punchestown in pursuit of more big-race honours.

The County Kildare handler said: “Sizing John has come out of his Cheltenham race very well and we were obviously thrilled with how everything went.

“So we have decided that our next step is to go to the Coral Punchestown Gold Cup at the end of April.”

As for the vanquished, the Colin Tizzard-trained Native River and Cue Card could clash in the Betway Bowl at Aintree’s Grand National meeting.

Native River – second in Wetherby’s West Yorkshire Hurdle earlier in the season – finished third while Cue Card crashed out at the third last fence for the second successive year.

Cue Card also has the option of the shorter Melling Chase and Tizzard said: “Both horses had a canter (yesterday morning) and they’re absolutely fine.

“Cue Card didn’t look like he was going to win when he came down, but if you watch the replay of last year’s race he didn’t look to be going anywhere at the fourth-last and then at the third-last it looked like he’d just jumped in.

“He wasn’t going as well as last year, but he’s come back fine and that’s the main thing.

“The other horse (Native River) ran his race, I think. He got nutted for second and the winner (Sizing John) is a very good horse.

“We’ll see how they are nearer the time, but they could both go to Aintree, or one might wait for Punchestown.”