Pendleton lines up new challenge at Aintree

AN audacious bid by Victoria Pendleton to follow Friday’s fifth place at the Cheltenham Festival by tackling the Grand National fences next season may be discussed in the next few weeks.

The dual Olympic cycling champion just missed out on being placed on Paul Nichollstrained Pacha Du Polder in the Foxhunter Chase, the culmination of a year-long ‘Switching Saddles’ challenge funded by Betfair.

The betting exchange will give Pendleton According To Sarah, after she has ridden the mare in a point-to-point next Sunday, and will also consider future projects with Pendleton.

If Pendleton goes for a shorter race at Aintree — the Fox Hunters there is over two miles and five furlongs, half a mile less than her Festival race — she has a ready-made mount in Pacha Du Polder, who was second in 2015.

Betfair spokesman Barry Orr said: ‘Victoria will ride at Kimble point-to-point next Sunday and we will be presenting According To Sarah to her. She loves the horse — she calls her “Big Red”.’

Should Pendleton wish to compete at Aintree in 2017, she would need a higher category of amateur licence than she currently holds.

Meanwhile, Gold Cup winner Don Cossack is set to run once more this season, with trainer Gordon Elliott targeting Punchestown’s Gold Cup on April 27, which he won last year.

Elliott will bypass Aintree, where the nine-year-old landed the Grade One Melling Chase in 2015. ‘I’d say we’d go straight to Punchestown,’ he said. ‘He had a hard race on Friday. We would not want to go back to the well too quick.’