DESPITE the presence of Denman in the totesport Bowl, connections of Exotic Dancer are happy they won’t face his nemesis Kauto Star in the feature on the opening day of Aintree’s three-day meeting.

Jonjo O’Neill’s nine-year-old is among the 17 entries for Thursday’s Grade Two contest and having finished behind the dual Cheltenham Gold Cup hero Kauto Star in six Grade One chases connections are happy there is no re-match.

Exotic Dancer will still face Paul Nicholls’ other star Denman.

Exotic Dancer was third behind Nicholls’ big two earlier this month, but connections are hopeful he can land the totesport Bowl for a second time following his success in the 3m1f contest two years ago.

Barry Simpson, racing manager to owner Sir Robert Ogden said: “I think the aim with Exotic Dancer is the totesport Bowl where he will face Denman.

“We’ve a couple of lengths to make up on him on Gold Cup form and he will obviously have improved a lot since then reading what Paul Nicholls has been saying.

“At least Kauto Star won’t be there but you can’t take anything away from him, he’s done it over a range of distances and proved himself one of the very best chasers of all time.

“Exotic Dancer had a much better prepara-tion for the Gold Cup this year, he had all sorts of problems at a critical time two years ago. This year we had no excuse.

“It was a very good performance from him in Ireland when he won the Lexus but we felt very confident before the race and thought he would win. We go into this race feeling posi-tive. We think he’ll run a pretty good race.”

Exotic Dancer has been top weight in the National, but connections decided against running this time. Simpson added: “It was something we spent quite a lot of time talking to Sir Robert about but we made a decision it was perhaps one year too early. Next year he’ll be 10 and I think that would be a good time to make a challenge.”