Plenty of options for County winner Alderwood Next month's Festival meetings at Fairyhouse, Aintree and Punchestown will all come under consideration for County Hurdle winner Alderwood. The eight-year-old gave Tom Mullins his first Cheltenham Festival winner but the County Kilkenny trainer is not happy with the handicapper's view of the race. "The English handicapper has given him 10lb for a three-parts of a length win, which was a bit severe I thought," said Mullins. "If he doesn't go to Aintree, he won't be going back to England this season. "He'll probably have an entry or two in the novice races there, but I haven't talked about it with JP (McManus, owner) or Frank (Berry, racing manager) yet. "Handicaps are probably out now, but we will see if we can fit him in at Aintree. He seems to have taken Cheltenham very well, so I wouldn't rule it out. "Obviously, Simonsig would be very hard to beat in the two-and-a-half-mile race. He was very impressive in the Neptune at Cheltenham. "We'll give him an entry but we'll see. We may hang on for a race at Fairyhouse or Punchestown. "We gave him a good break after Listowel in September, so he was a fresh horse going to Cheltenham. He had a couple of months off and just had the one run at Leopardstown before Cheltenham. "We were always going to look at the Spring Festivals. We'll just see how he is in the next couple of weeks. We'll get our heads around it and do the right thing."
