Cheltenham on the agenda for Big Shu

Big Shu is set to return to Cheltenham on Friday for the £35,000 Glenfarclas Cross Country Handicap Chase.

The nine-year-old provided County Kildare handler Peter Maher with his biggest victory to date over the same three miles and seven furlongs at the Festival in March 2013.

He was third at the big meeting in March this year, before falling at the third fence in the Grand National, and was third on his reappearance at Punchestown last month.

Maher said: "As long the ground is no faster than good, then Big Shu will travel over to Cheltenham. He is a soft ground specialist but is fine on good going over a longer trip.

"He was sick a month before he ran in March and I had Aintree on my mind at the time. I wanted to keep him fresh for the National and to keep his weight light for that race, so I didn't want to run him in case he got lumbered with too much weight.

"In the Grand National itself, he went out at the third after a horse backed off the fence and interfered with him. He didn't have anywhere to go but shouldn't have been on the inside anyway - you want to be on the outside on the first circuit and then move in on the second lap.

"The ground was a bit slippery when he ran last time at Punchestown because there was a lot of rain in the days beforehand. Big Shu jumped all the difficult fences well but made a few mistakes at the easier ones. I was happy enough with our horse because the first two home had been specifically aimed at that race.

"I think Big Shu would have beaten Balthazar King at this year's Festival if he had a couple of runs under his belt beforehand, but I don't think we saw the true Balthazar King that day because the ground was against him.

"Balthazar King is the cross-country king of Britain and Big Shu is the cross-country king of Ireland. Balthazar King is a fast ground, out-in-front type of horse and a brilliant jumper. Big Shu is a soft-ground specialist and, while I would love to have another race between them, they are two completely different horses.

"We will be looking at Aintree again this year because Big Shu ticks all of the boxes for the Grand National."