“THAT WAS ALWAYS THE TARGET”: Gentleman At Arms to be aimed at 2022 Grand National Festival

Gentleman At Arms will test his Graded hurdle potential at the upcoming Grand National Festival, his handler Stuart Edmunds has confirmed.

The Reliable Man gelding has made a fine start to life over timber following his flat excursions for Henry Dunlop, finishing second in both the Leamington and Sidney Banks, respectively, with facile Huntingdon successes sandwiching these silver medal efforts.

And while Cheltenham was deemed too classy an affair at this stage of the five-year-old’s career, he will make the trek to Liverpool in just under two weeks’ time as he bids to give connections Grade 1 glory.

“He came out of his race well and he will be aimed at one of the novice hurdles at Aintree,” Edmunds told At The Races.

“He’s in good form and that is the target, it always was the target.

“The owners were away for Cheltenham and I didn’t think we were good enough to go there anyway. Hopefully, as we are going to Aintree with a fresh horse, he will stand a better chance against those good horses.”

Out of Sworn Sold, the gelding has ran over two-and-a-half miles or just over on his recent four outings but the Buckinghamshire chief will not be offput by the potential of stepping his charge up to three miles.

“We’ll enter him in both [Mersey and Sefton], if the ground came very soft we may consider the two-and-a-half but I think the three-miler could bring out the most improvement for him,” he added.

“I don’t think three miles holds any problems for him.”