THARAWAAT HANDED BETFRED BECHER HANDICAP CHASE OPTION BY IRELAND'S ELLIOTT

Aintree hosts an exciting seven-race card on Saturday, December 8, which is headlined by the £110,000 Listed Betfred Becher Handicap Chase (2.10pm).

The three and a quarter mile contest gives the jockeys and their mounts a rare opportunity to experience the unique Grand National course before the John Smith's Grand National on April 6, 2013.

In recent years the Betfred Becher Handicap Chase has proven to be a future pointer to the world's greatest chase with Amberleigh House taking the prize in 2001 and then giving trainer Ginger McCain a memorable fourth John Smith's Grand National in 2004.

The last horse to complete the double was Gordon Elliott's Silver Birch, who held off the strong challenge of Mckelvey to capture the John Smith's Grand National in 2007, having taken the Betfred Becher Handicap Chase in 2004 when trained by Paul Nicholls.

Elliott could aim for a Betfred Becher Handicap Chase success of his own with Tharawaat. The seven-year-old belied his starting price of 125/1 to come home eighth in last season's John Smith's Grand National and returned with an encouraging sixth in the Troytown Handicap Chase at Navan last Sunday (November 25).

Elliott, the youngest trainer to win the John Smith's Grand National in modern times, revealed yesterday: "Tharawaat will be given an entry in the Betfred Becher Chase and we will make our mind up nearer the time as he only ran on Sunday.

"He has come out of the Troytown well and everything seems OK. He blew up but came home well so we were very pleased with his performance.

"We thought he would run a good race in last season's Grand National and he was staying on very strongly at the finish.

"We will be looking at the Grand National again with him and if we were lucky enough to get a Grand National on soft ground, it would suit him really well."

The other feature race on the card is the £60,000 Betfred Grand Sefton Handicap Chase (3.20pm), run over two miles, five and a half furlongs on the Grand National course. The contest has also had a bearing on the John Smith's Grand National with 2004 victor Forest Gunner going on to finish fifth in the Aintree showpiece later in the same season.

A seven-race card on Betfred Becher Chase Day also includes a pair of Listed races - the £20,000 Betfred "The Bonus King" Fillies' Juvenile Hurdle (12.35pm) and the Betfred Treble Odds On Lucky 15's Chase (1.05pm). The action gets underway at noon.