The ten-year-old currently has a chase mark of 154 but Nick Alexander’s Kinneston raider, who was pulled up in last season’s Aintree marathon, is top-weight on 149 in the William Hill Leading Racecourse Bookmaker Handicap Hurdle under his regular jockey Henry Brooke.

Alexander, who was supervising his runners across the River Tweed from Kelso racecourse at Friars Haugh point to point yesterday, said: “We’re going back over hurdles to protect his mark with the Grand National weights in mind. To be fair there aren’t too many chases about for him at the moment anyway and he seems to be in good form. “He’s got 11st 12lb on his back and is giving upwards of 18lbs away to five younger rivals so it’s no easy task. On paper he looks up against it but you never know and hopefully we can find a chase for him before Aintree after this.”

Taking on Lake View Lad, from the opposite end of the weights, is Sandy Thomson’s Mcgowan’s Pass who has been raised 9lbs for his 14-length romp at Ayr earlier this month.

And another last-time-out winner among the opposition is Lucinda Russell-trained grey Bialco, a comfortable scorer at Kelso’s final meeting of 2019 in late December for his Scandinavian-based owners The Vikings .