Earthmover will bid to get back on the Cheltenham Gold Cup trail at Chepstow next Wednesday. Last season's Christies Foxhunter Chase winner is set to return from three months on the sidelines in the John Hughes Grand National Trial.
He was injured in a fall at Newton Abbot in November on his only start this term, but Paul Nicholls hopes the gelding he will be able to join See More Business and Double Thriller in his Gold Cup team.
"The plan is to run on Wednesday and he is fine," said the trainer, who was able to call on the help of Ireland's leading young rider in preparing his eight-year-old for next week's race.
"Ruby Walsh schooled him on Wednesday - he is a big pal of Richard Barber and came over because he had a couple of blank days in Ireland - and Earthmover seemed in good form.
"I'd like to get a run into him, as I hope to be able to give him another race before the Gold Cup in something like the Greenalls.
"I wouldn't be horribly disappointed if he didn't win on Wednesday as he was injured on November 4th and we weren't able to sit on him until January 3rd.
"We had to operate on him and we have rushed it a bit as we want to get a couple of runs into him."
Earthmover is quoted at 16 to 1 for the Gold Cup by Ladbrokes, who offer only 12 to 1 about Double Thriller - also entered on Wednesday but more likely to return to Wincanton, scene of his runaway reappearance victory last week.
"Double Thriller is in just in case anything happens to Earthmover, and the Jim Ford Chase might be a nice race for him," Nicholls said.
Also among 13 possibles for the John Hughes, which Nicholls won with Ottowa 12 months ago, are Martell Grand National entries Call It A Day (trained by David Nicholson), Danger Baby (Peter Bowen) and Step On Eyre (Henry Daly).
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