Ellison angles Definitly Red '¨at the National

Despite being victorious in Wetherby’s Rowland Metrick Chase on Boxing Day under a resurgent Henry Brooke, Ellison was not convinced that the horse had the right scope for Aintree’s showpiece race.

However, the British Horseracing Authority’s chief handicapper Phil Smith suggested otherwise and the trainer is now building National-type schooling fences at his Malton yard for Definitly Red.

Ellison reports the eight-year-old, owned by Tickhill-based Phil Martin, to be none the worse for his exertions in Haydock’s Peter Marsh Chase 10 days ago when he was staying on for a place behind Cheltenham, Gold Cup contender Bristol De Mai when he was badly hampered by Vintage Clouds’s fall three out, causing the luckless Brooke to be unseated.

“I think he’d have finished second,” said Ellison, whose Forest Bihan won Doncaster’s Grade Two Lightning Novices Chase on Saturday in Martin’s two-tone green and red colours.

“He was starting to stay on again but he had made that mistake down the back.

“He was also hating the 
ground.

“He came out of it well and we’ve given him a couple of easy weeks.

“We’re going to go with him again in early March with a view to whether we go to the Grand National or not.

“He might go either to Kelso or for the Grimthorpe at Doncaster.

“It depends on how he schools over the fences. We’re going to have some National-style fences built up in a couple of weeks’ time.

“If he takes to them well, then he might run at Aintree.”

Meanwhile, the aforementioned Brooke took his tally of winners to five in three days when Glingerside prevailed at Ayr.

As for Peter Marsh winner Bristol de Mai, he will put his Gold Cup credentials on the line in next month’s Denman Chase at Newbury.

Trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies, and owners Simon Munir and Isaac Souede, appear more confident after the previously invincible Thistlecrack’s defeat to the tragically ill-fated Many Clouds in Cheltenham’s Cotswold Chase on Saturday.

In the meantime, their promising novice Calett Mad heads the entries for Totepool Towton Novices’ Chase at Wetherby on Saturday.

Twiston-Davies, who won this race 12 months ago with subsequent Cheltenham Festival hero Blaklion, holds Calett Madd in similarly high regard.

The Philip Hobbs-trained 
Rock The Kasbah is another high-profile entry in the colours of former Charlie Hall hero Menorah, though he’s more likely to run in the Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase at Sandown on the same day.

Missed Approach is a possible for Warren Greatrex whose Cole Harden made an inauspicious chasing debut at Wetherby last month while Yorkshire hopes rest with Sue Smith’s Delusionsofgrandeur.