“Mouse Morris is planning to give War Of Attrition a run over hurdles with a view to a crack at next year’s John Smith’s Grand National at Aintree.

The 2006 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner travelled strongly for a long way in the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury last month but weakened from the halfway stage to finish 11th of the 18 runners.

Morris admits his charge is not the force of old, but could not be happier with the 10-year-old’s current condition.

“The plan at the moment is to give him a run over hurdles to freshen him up a bit,” said the County Tipperary handler.

“He’s in great fettle at the moment and I think the National would be his long-term target.

“He travelled well for a long way at Newbury but he is just getting a bit like myself now – age is catching up with him!

“I would think he’ll run over hurdles around Christmas time and after that we might look at something like the Thyestes Chase.

“This will be his last year and as he is in good fettle at the moment, why not keep him going?

“He’ll tell us when he’s had enough.”"

Looks like the National could be his swansong. Would be great to see the horse bow out in a blaze of glory.

I’ll be opening a new main thread later today as I don’t want to repeat the problems we had last year where some people couldn’t view the thread once it got to a certain size.
If you’d like to bring your ideas on here to a close and for openers on the new thread I’ll be asking for any reports you may have seen on horses who have the National as an intended target.
Thanks again for all the great input.

I’m always a bit wary of small fields. I was rather disappointed when only 5 were declared for the Charlie Hall. I’m hoping it will be a true run race with plenty of pace on.

Just added No Refuge to Pedigreequery. Unsure why they would have removed him….

You should find the Dosage figures for No Refuge in ‘Narrowing the Field’ as he has won the Ballymore Props Hurdle previously. Not sure why he doesn’t appear on pedigreequery.com, when that happens I usually add the horse myself.

Ben while working out the west yorkshire hurdle using the site Pedigreequery.com I notice the no figure for NO REFUGE (IRE), what do you do with those? Timeform gives it an X and says it not a fluent jumper, would I be best of ignoring the animal and just calculate the rest, (OR WHAT?)

While we are talking about seven year olds who might have a chance in the national. One of the first stats I apply is age 8-12 year old. I feel anything less than 8 would not have the experience, while older than 12 would not have the speed. So if anything would break or bend that rule it would have to show those qualities.

Possol has 15 runs (4 wins) so show experience, trouble is would you want to make an exception and include him in your bets, bearing in mind that a win is not guarantee, or would you have too many who fit in the stats your using anyway.

Just something to think and debate about.