Alderwood likely for Grand Annual

Tom Mullins is keeping his fingers crossed for an incident-free week with Alderwood ahead of his bid for back-to-back victories at the Cheltenham Festival.

Last year's County Hurdle winner made a fairly steady start to his career over fences, but got off the mark at Navan in January and was an excellent second in a competitive handicap at Fairyhouse last time.

While he holds an entry in Thursday's Byrne Group Plate, it is more likely that the final race of the entire meeting on Friday, the Grand Annual, will be his target.

Mullins said: "Everything is good at the moment. All his main work is done.

"Hopefully we get through the weekend all right and then he'll travel over on Tuesday or Wednesday.

"I'm happy enough with where we are with him. He took a while to come to himself this season but he's in good form now and hopefully we get him there and get a bit of luck on the day.

"It's not confirmed yet, but it's more than likely he'll run in the Grand Annual and I would imagine Tony McCoy will ride him."