Colonel Harry remains among the market principals after 14 horses were confirmed for Saturday's feature handicap - the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury.
The seven-year-old's owners (GD Partnership), trainer and jockey were successful in the race with the subsequently ill-fated Datsalrightgino 12 months ago and Gavin Sheehan keeps the ride on the Jamie Snowden representative following a pleasing comeback second at Carlisle earlier in the month.
Recent Cheltenham winner Senior Chief lines up for Henry De Bromhead under Darragh O'Keeffe and will be looking to confirm his Prestbury Park superiority over the reopposing third Broadway Boy, who is trained by Nigel Twiston-Davies and is also among the favourites for Saturday's big race.
Venetia Williams and Charlie Deutsch have made a fine start to the campaign and team up with the returning Victtorino, while Paul Nicholls also has a fascinating seasonal debutant in the eight-year-old Kandoo Kid under stable jockey Harry Cobden.
Ben Pauling runs Henry's Friend, the mount of Ben Jones who enjoyed a memorable day here with De Rasher Counter in 2019, while Dan Skelton has opted to declare both of his entries, with Harry Skelton staying loyal to the mare Galia Des Liteaux and James Bowen coming in for the ride on Midnight River, who fell when fancied for the race 12 months ago. The latter wears cheekpieces for the first time in his career on the back of a prep run at Wetherby.
Original top-weight Nassalam was a Thursday morning defector so that honour now goes to 12-year-old outsider Sam Brown, while Jonjo and A J O'Neill are set to saddle Iron Bridge at the other end of the weights.
Willie Mullins runs Horantzau d'Airy in the famous silks of Rich Ricci, with Ireland's third and final representative the Eddie Harty-trained Grandero Bello under Ricky Doyle, who rode Freewheelin Dylan to win the Irish Grand National at 150/1 in 2021.
Grandero Bello, Remastered and French-trained General En Chef (N. George & A. Zetterholm) complete the final field for the £250,000 contest.
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