Empire Of Dirt (left) in winning action at the Cheltenham Festival© Photo Healy Racing
Cheltenham Festival hero Empire Of Dirt is among 64 entries for the Crabbie's Topham Chase at Aintree on April 8.
Colm Murphy's charge landed the Grade Three Brown Advisory & Merriebelle Stable Plate at Cheltenham last week and Murphy is giving him three options at Aintree.
"Empire Of Dirt is fine and seems to have come out of Cheltenham well," said the County Wexford handler.
"We will see how he is over the next 10 days or so but I would imagine he will go to Aintree.
"He is in the Topham and he will probably get an entry in the three-mile one handicap on Grand National Day (the Listed Betfred Handicap Chase) and maybe even the Red Rum Handicap on the Thursday over two miles.
"I am not sure what we will do but he seems versatile enough.
"His jumping has been good the last couple of runs. He made a few novicey mistakes before but he seems to have ironed that out and was very good in Cheltenham. I would not be too concerned about his jumping now."
Empire Of Dirt is one of 16 Irish-trained entries, including seven from the Willie Mullins stable, among them Ballycasey, Blood Cotil, Sir Des Champs and Turban while Killer Crow is an eyecatching entry for Gold Cup winning-trainer Gordon Elliott.
Bristol De Mai, a fine runner-up in the JLT Novices' Chase at Cheltenham, heads the home team.
The Nigel Twiston-Davies-trained novice may only be a five-year-old but that did not stop Cyfor Malta in 1998 and Gwanako in 2008 taking this prestigious prize over the Grand National fences.
Twiston-Davies, who collected the Aintree race with Irish Raptor in 2009, has four other possibles in Astracad, Ballykan and Big Casino and Minella Reception.
Other notable possibles include Philip Hobbs' Village Vic and the Micky Hammond-trained Rathlin, who was third last year when trained in Ireland by Mouse Morris.
Nicky Henderson, who has won the last three renewals of the Topham, has two entries in Captain Conan and Cocktails At Dawn.
