HELLO BUD will bid to become only the second horse to win the Betfred Becher Chase for a second time at Aintree on Saturday.
The Nigel Twiston-Davies-trained veteran led almost from start to finish 12 months ago and is currently 8-1 favourite with Coral to do something similar.
Only Into The Red – in 1994 and 1996 – has won the 3m3f feature over the big National fences twice.
Hello Bud was among the 26 entries at yesterday’s five-day declaration stage.
Paul Nicholls has won the race three times in the last seven years and has entered Meanus Dandy and Niche Market – the latter is a 10-1 second favourite with Coral.
Aintree specialist Always Waining, winner of the Topham Chase in April, is one of three entries from Peter Bowen’s stable with Ballyvesey and Sun Tzu the others.
Mad Max is due to make his debut for Neil Mulholland and is a 25-1 chance.
The trainer is set to be schooled over specially-constructed Aintree-style fences this week and Mulholland said: “We’ve taken him away for a nice gallop, he schooled last week over normal fences and we’re going to build an Aintree fence at home for him this week.
“He jumps very well and he looks superb. The ground should be good to soft which should be fine for him.
“People say fresh is the time to catch him but I think a flat track is as much to do with it. He will be fresh but hopefully he can settle.
“If you look at his form he’s always run well at places like Aintree and Kempton and never run well at Cheltenham as he can never get in to a rhythm there.
“The owners wanted a crack at the National and this is the obvious place to start to see if that’s realistic.
“If he doesn’t get the trip we’ll have a discussion and maybe come back to two and a half miles.”
David Pipe looks to hold a strong hand with Swing Bill, Master Overseer and Sona Sasta. Any Currency, Fine Parchment, Rare Bob, Nicto De Beauchene and Irish challenger Uncle Junior are others of note.
TODAY’S NAP: Red Jade (1.55pm Southwell)
