Owner Stuart Andrew is relaxed about his Randox Grand National hero Nick Rockett needing to run over fences this season to qualify for this year's race.
The nine-year-old hasn't been seen this season after suffering an overreach in training but he needs a run before Aintree if he's to go back and defend his title.
The Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup on March 13 could be his first start of the campaign and Andrews thinks it would be the perfect Grand National prep despite it being his first outing of the season.
He said on the Nick Luck Daily Podcast on Wednesday: “I think it’s the ideal distance for him to recover, I think we’ve a month between races, and I don’t think the ground will be bottomless at Cheltenham, or at Aintree.
“We think he performs slightly better on a better surface. I think it’d be a nice idea to run him in the Gold Cup, it would be nice to go there and have a day out.
"Nick Rockett has literally changed my life. He’s took me to places and I’ve met wonderful people.
"He’s the local hero now where I live and where I’m originally from in Bradford.
"The horse is low mileage, he hasn’t done a lot of racing, he’s run 13 times in total, and we never rush our horses.
"Nick Rockett will tell us when he’s ready to run. He’s not a huge galloping chaser that takes miles and miles to get him fit."
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