Hanlon weighing up Grand National riding options for Hewick

John ‘Shark’ Hanlon is set to decide this week who will ride Hewick in the Randox Grand National.

The famous €850 purchase and 2023 King George hero delighted his handler when tuning up for his Aintree assignment with a victory in the hands of Hanlon’s son Paddy at Thurles in the Jimmy Neville Memorial Hurdle – with all roads leading to Merseyside on April 5.

Hanlon praised the ride given to his stable star by the 17-year-old, but the young conditional is ineligible to partner the 10-year-old at Aintree, with Hewick set to be reunited with one of his more regular partners.

The County Carlow handler is set to discuss riding arrangements for the Liverpool marathon with owner T J McDonald this week, with Hewick’s King George-winning pilot Gavin Sheehan and frequent rider Jordan Gainford both in the equation.

“It was a great day for us all, especially with Paddy riding him and I got a great kick out of that, there is nothing like it,” said Hanlon, reflecting on Hewick’s Thurles success.

“He gave him a beautiful ride and the horse didn’t have a hard race but he got a blow, which we wanted him to, and the horse got a bit of confidence there ahead of a big race.”

On Grand National riding arrangements, he added: “We’re going to talk about that and I’m meeting T J soon to discuss that.

“We’ve two very good chaps in Gavin Sheehan and Jordan Gainford, but Gordon (Elliott) will have plenty of runners in the race and I don’t know how that will fit with Jordan, so we’ll have to discuss things. We’ll make a decision this week, as we need to be fair to the lads involved.

“Paddy can’t ride him as he hasn’t ridden in enough chases, but we don’t mind as he got his day in glory yesterday – which was brilliant and he will get plenty of chances down the road.

“We thought about Aintree two years ago and schooled him over the fences and he jumped well but then went back to a different plan, but there has only been one plan for this year and that plan has been in place for the last six months.

“The English National is the plan and please God all we ask is a bit of luck now.”