Paul Nicholls says Kalif Du Berlais will skip this year's Cheltenham Festival and be aimed at Aintree in early-April instead.
Speaking to Betfair in his regular Ditcheat Diary slot on Monday morning, the trainer was reflecting on his five-year-old's disappointing effort when last of four behind Handstands in Saturday's Grade 1 Scilly Isles Novices' Chase at Sandown Park.
Nicholls will look to drop the promising Kalif Du Berlais back in distance and has Aintree in mind before putting him away for the summer months.
He said: "We thought we’d let him take his chance but, as I had suspicions, he didn’t really stay the trip in that ground. It might have been different on good ground.
"We'll stick to two miles, we’ll give him a nice long break now. I don’t see him going to Cheltenham now because the connections have L’Eau Du Sud to run in the Arkle and I’m not going to run him in the Grand Annual off 152.
"So we’ll wait for Aintree and let him go there. That’ll probably be his only other run this season as he’s only five, we’ll give him plenty of time.
"I can see him being a really nice horse at the start of next season, run him in the Haldon Gold Cup or something like that, then stick to the shorter route for now. You can use his jumping and let him travel, I don’t think holding him up really suits him and it’s one of those things we learned over the weekend."
Looking ahead to this coming weekend, the trainer is preparing to run some of his top staying chasers, among others, on the valuable card at Newbury.
He said: "It's the Denman Chase at Newbury on Saturday and Hitman and Bravemansgame are going to run in that. We've a nice horse called Act Of Innocence to run in the bumper, we've a lot of horses to run there at Newbury and Exeter too of course at the weekend. Regent's Stroll will probably head there on Sunday. I'd love to see the ground dry up."
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