Handstands heads Ben Pauling team for Aintree

The Gloucestershire trainer has maintained an excellent strike-rate throughout the season this year and is aiming to finish strongly with some of his star horses in action on Merseyside next week.

They include Handstands in the opening EBF Group Manifesto Novices' Chase (1.45) on the Thursday and Pauling is understandably buoyed by the fact his horse narrowly beat subsequent Arkle winner Jango Baie in the Scilly Isles at Sandown early last month.

The trainer told Racing TV: "He comes at the top of the list at the moment. He's done nothing wrong all season really and I can't wait to see him there. We left Cheltenham out on purpose and we come here as a fresh horse. I expect him, on his home form, to be as good as ever.

"He's a very nice horse and he's got a lot more speed than people give him credit for. I know it was on soft ground but he beat the Arkle winner over what was probably his [Jango Baie] the trip that the Arkle winner wants. It was a proper ding-dong from the back of the second-last, and I'd say he is a very decent."

Another in line for top-class honours on the opening day of the National meeting is the four-year-old Mambonumberfive, who will aim to follow up his surprise (10/1) Adonis Hurdle success in the Boodles Anniversary 4-Y-O Juvenile Hurdle.

WATCH: Mambonumberfive lands Grade 2 contest at Kempton

Pauling said: "He came from France and we were really looking forward to him [thinking] he was never going to be a four-year-old. He did everything wrong at Cheltenham and then everything right at Kempton. I was just going there trying to get him to finish, we didn't go to the Adonis expecting to win, we were hoping he would run a nice race and finish well.

"He found himself in amongst it turning for home and then got there quite easily. He's come out of it incredibly well, he seems very well and I'm very sweet on him.

"It seems like a lot of the Cheltenham horses are going to reoppose - East India Dock and Lulamba - but, again, we all know how hard it is to go from Cheltenham to Aintree so it gives us an opportunity to get involved. We can ride him just the same, we don't need to get involved [early on] and if he comes there, he comes there."

Pauling's Our Boy Stan and Betty's Daisy could appear in bumpers, while also in the mix for Aintree are Shakem Up'arry and Bad, who both hold entries in the Topham Handicap Chase next Friday.

He said: "Shakem Up'arry goes probably for the three-mile handicap chase on the Saturday or the Topham. I was delighted woth his run on that ground at Cheltenham. He just didn't have the gears to go with them.

"Bad might go for the Topham. He really is [in the form of his life] and he's come out of Kempton in seriously good order. We'll get a handle on what his owner wants to go and if he doesn't want to go to Aintree then he could go to Punchestown.

"He's going the right way, I'd say he's got more up his sleeve. I'm delighted to see him go in the last twice because I've always believed in the horse and he's found every excuse in the book to get out of it. The blinkers seem to have concentrated his mind and he hasn't had it all his own way, it's not like he's led pillar to post, he's toughed it out especially last time, and he's a different horse than he was six months ago."

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