Gavin Sheehan will be reunited with Hewick in the Randox Grand National, trainer John 'Shark' Hanlon has stated.
Sheehan famously steered the well-travelled chaser to victory in the 2023 King George VI Chase at Kempton Park, the only time he has ridden the horse in a competitive race.
The stable's 7lb amateur Paddy Hanlon, who knows the now 10-year-old Hewick better than most, took the ride for his winning prep race over hurdles at Thurles in the middle of the month, but Sheehan has been pencilled in for Aintree on Saturday week.
Speaking on Racing TV on Sunday, Hanlon said: "We are very excited and we only really made the decision last night to go with Gavin, who knows the English tracks very well, is riding out of his skin and has nearly 90 winners this year.
"It was a tough call, it was hard on Jordan [Gainford] as well but I rang him, explained to him and he took it like a man. Not a nice call to make but he'll be back on him again."
Hanlon doesn't have any regrets over not changing tack and running Hewick in the Gold Cup at Cheltenham, where he fell heavily two from home in the race two years ago before being withdrawn on account of the testing conditions 12 months ago.
However, the trainer feels he might have been placed in the Grade 1 feature considering the ground was suitably dry on the day.
He said: "He would have run a big race, there was a long way between the second and third and I'd imagine he'd have been somewhere in the middle. But we had our mind made up for a while that we didn't want to go to Cheltenham as I'd find it hard to do the two.
"We had the race picked out in Thurles [Jimmy Neville Memorial Hurdle] for him - so we stuck to the plan. Every time I change a plan things go wrong. So we saw the race in Thurles and it was a chance to give Paddy a ride around on him too. He's actually looking after him there for five or six years. It was great that he got to do the job on him.
"If we get nice ground he should be there or thereabouts. There's no reason that he won't be. He won the bet365 [Gold Cup, Sandown] over three miles, six. So that's nearly as good a test as that you have.
"He's in good form. With JP's horse [Inothewayurthinkin] coming out of it now, the race is wide open and I'd say you could have 7/1 or 8/1 the field. The week before Cheltenham, the whole lot of owners all backed him at 66/1 and I thought at 66/1 he was a great bet each-way. When you're running in the National it's good to have a bit of value and that's what they have."
Hewick is now a general 16/1 for Grand National glory on April 5, the market topped by clear favourite Intense Raffles for trainer Tom Gibney and owners Simon Munir and Isaac Souede.
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