Many Clouds to skip Lexus Trainer Oliver Sherwood has ruled Many Clouds out of the Lexus Chase at Leopardstown on December 28th. Last season's Crabbie's Grand National hero is, however, still poised to have two more runs before he attempts a repeat bid at Aintree in the spring, with the BetBright Cup Cotswold Chase at Cheltenham on January 30th the first likely port of call. Sherwood told the Telegraph: "He's not going to go over to Ireland for the Lexus, not for any particular reason, but I'd like to ideally get two more runs into him before Aintree." He added: "It will probably be the Cotswold Chase, as before, even though it looks a hot race. "Otherwise there's the Denman at Newbury and after that, the Ivan Straker Memorial at Kelso looks a good race for him. "Ballabriggs went to Kelso before winning the National (2011) and it's the same race they used for Long Run the other year. "He'll have an entry (in the Gold Cup) but it would only be as an insurance policy. "It's three weeks between the Gold Cup and the National this year, instead of four, and I'm not sure that's enough of a gap. "He's been ticking along. You don't want to back off him, you want to sort of keep him nearly at fever pitch, as otherwise he'd be too fresh and Leighton (Aspell) wouldn't be able to hold him."
