Noble Yeats among Many Clouds Chase field at Aintree

Grand National winner Noble Yeats is one of six declared for Saturday's Boylesports Many Clouds Chase at Aintree.

Trained by Emmet Mullins, he showed no ill effects from a disappointing trip to France earlier in the season when winning at Wexford last time out but he faces much sterner opposition this weekend.

Lucinda Russell's Ahoy Senor may have run well below form on his reappearance in the Charlie Hall but he has two Grade Ones to his credit, over both hurdles and fences, at Aintree and is likely to be a different proposition

Nicky Henderson's Chantry House, Ruth Jefferson's Sounds Russian and Anthony Honeyball's Sam Brown have also been declared.

As has Dashel Drasher, trained by Jeremy Scott, who won over hurdles at the track in November but is set to head back over fences before options in both spheres are likely to be explored later in the season.

He had been due to run at Newbury last week in the Long Distance Hurdle but fast ground ruled him out.

He holds an entry in the Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot on 17 December, but Scott is fearful of the long-term forecast.

He said: "We have been really pleased with him since he last ran and are just in search of his ground really, but we need to run him again. My worry is, although he has an entry in the Long Walk, the forecast isn't great going forward.

"He seems to like Aintree and, at the moment, if the ground stays similar to how it is, that will pretty much be the plan.

"The owners and us are keen to see him run over a bit more of a trip, because the three-mile hurdling division does not look as strong as some of the others."

Though he will line up for the Grade Two chase, the Brompton Regis handler hopes he can still develop into a crack staying hurdler, even with a mid-term