Richards’ Famous Bridge in the frame for Scottish National

NICKY RICHARDS’ Famous Bridge is preparing for a Scottish Grand National bid after his fourth- placed effort in the Ultima Handicap Chase at Cheltenham.

The eight- year- old runs in the silks of the late Trevor Hemmings and has developed into the classic chasing type associated with those colours.

After taking a good handicap chase at Haydock in November, the gelding returned to the same track to win the Tommy Whittle the following month. He was pulled up in the Great Yorkshire Chase at Doncaster and then parted ways with Sean Quinlan when going well in the Grand National Trial at Haydock last month. However, he put both runs behind him when lining up at Cheltenham as a 25- 1 chance for the three- mile- one- furlong Ultima, coming home fourth of 21 runners.

“He seems fine, we’ll just see how he is for the next week or 10 days or so, if he’s all right and the ground’s all right, we’ll go for the Scottish National,” said Richards.

“He ran a decent race in the Ultima, he’s a very tough and consistent horse, we were pleased with him.

“He’s had a busy season running in competitive races, so he’ll go up there to Scotland and that’ll be his last run this time. He’s had a grand year, it’s a shame he unseated at Haydock but there you go, he’ll make up for that next year and we’ll train him with the National in mind.”

Meanwhile, top- weight Hewick has been officially scratched from the Randox Grand National, with trainer Shark Hanlon instead targeting the Aintree Bowl two days earlier.

Following his thrilling victory in the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day, connections had been planning a huge spring double with both the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the world’s most famous steeplechase on Merseyside in their sights.

However, Hanlon made the difficult decision to withdraw his stable star from last week’s blue riband due to the rain- softened ground and admitted he was considering switching his focus at Aintree to give him the best opportunity of having another shot at Gold Cup glory next term.

The County Carlow handler has now confirmed that plan, saying: “I’m going for the Bowl and then after that it’s quite possible we’ll come back to Punchestown for the Gold Cup there. I want to go for the Gold Cup next year, so he can go for a National next year...[ The Bowl] is a £ 250,000 race, so it’s worth a lot of money, and that’s our aim.”