Many Clouds could take in Gold Cup

Oliver Sherwood is open to the possibility of running Many Clouds in both the Randox Health Grand National and the Timico Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Many Clouds finished sixth behind Coneygree in the 2015 Gold Cup before triumphing at Aintree almost four weeks later.

Once again there is four weeks between the two races this year and, while Aintree is the ultimate aim for the 10-yer-old, Sherwood has confirmed he is considering sending him to Cheltenham in the build-up to the National.

"He'll certain have an entry in the Gold Cup. At this stage I'm not going to be saying yay or nay, but the fact is he's going to have an entry," Sherwood told the Racing Post.

"Who knows what the weather is going to do and the gap between Aintree and Cheltenham means you can run in both. I see that they mentioned the two races as a possibility for Don Poli, and it could be a distinct possibility. It worked out for us a couple of years ago."

Many Clouds bypassed the Lexus Chase at Leopardstown's Christmas meeting due to ground concerns and the weather will have a bearing on where he runs next with the Cotswold Chase at Cheltenham on January 28, Haydock's Peter Marsh Chase on 21 and the Denman Chase at Newbury on February 11 all under consideration.

Should he go to Cheltenham at the end of the month, Many Clouds could come up against impressive King Goerge VI winner Thistlecrack but Sherwood is not scared at the prospect of taking on the Gold Cup favourite.

"Others might run scared of Thistlecrack and there might be three runners against him in the Cotswold," Sherwood explained. "You should never be frightened of one horse, even though he's been very impressive.

"God forbid for Colin (Tizzard, trainer) and the owners, but you'd look foolish not to be running if he fell at the first or something, so I certainly wouldn't be frightened of taking him on."

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