HOWARD JOHNSON is hoping a change of jockey can bring a change of luck for Tidal Bay in tomorrow’s BGC Partners Liverpool Hurdle at Aintree.

Brian Hughes, who partnered the nine-year-old, to victory in the Cleeve Hurdle is back on board. Johnson’s stable jockey Denis O’Regan has decided to get off Tidal Bay after partnering him when disappointing behind Big Buck’s in the Ladbrokes World Hurdle at Cheltenham.

Tidal Bay will, like the other seven in the field, have his work cut out to stop Big Buck’s claiming back-to-back wins in the race.

But Johnson said: “He came out of Cheltenham fine and cantered nicely this morning, so we’ll just have to see how he gets on. I don’t know why he ran so badly at Cheltenham, he’s just one of those horses and for some reason he didn’t come up trumps on the day.

“We know he likes Aintree but we’ve decided to let Brian ride him as Denis came up this morning said he just doesn’t think he gets on with the horse anymore. All credit to Denis really – Brian won the Cleeve Hurdle on him and it’s worth a try. He just never ran his race last time, it was nowhere near his run in the Cleeve.

“We beat Time For Rupert that day and he was second in the World Hurdle. He was a bit better off at the weights last time and maybe he’s improving, but we should definitely have been closer than we were.

“It should be lovely ground at Aintree and we’ll just have to see what happens on the day.”

TODAY’S NAP: Angus Newz (2.50pm Nottingham).