STATE OF PLAY will soon be back at Evan Williams’s stable to get ready for a fourth crack at the John Smith’s Grand National next April.

The 2006 Hennessy Gold Cup winner has finishing fourth, third and fourth respectively in the Aintree marathon over the past three years. The 11-year-old has been with his owners during the summer and will again just run in one race this season, the Grand National on April 14 next year.

Williams said: “He’s grand. He’s doing his road work at Mr and Mrs William Rucker’s place

“It will be the same plan as usual to go back for the Grand National in the spring.

“He’ll be back with us after he’s finished his road work. We are always eagerly awaiting his reappearance back at the stable. Probably in the next few weeks he’ll get here and it will be the usual countdown to the spring with him.

“It will be the same plan as last year – straight to the National. It’s been magical the last three years. If we can get him back there in the same kind of form, then that is what we will try to do.

“It’s great to be there and create our own bit of history and to have a horse good enough to do that.”