Jonbon leads field of eight for Melling Chase repeat bid

Jonbon will face a maximum of eight rivals when he seeks to defend his My Pension Expert Melling Chase title at Aintree next Friday.

Nicky Henderson’s star chaser had no issue with stretching out to two-and-a-half miles when seeing off Conflated and Dan Skelton’s reopposing Protektorat to claim this prize 12 months ago and will be out to gain compensation for his Champion Chase reversal when returning to Merseyside.

Jonbon’s old rival El Fabiolo, Gaelic Warrior and Embassy Gardens could all represent Willie Mullins in opposition with Henry de Bromhead’s Ryanair Chase runner-up Heart Wood another possible Irish raider.

Evan Williams’ Champion Chase faller Libberty Hunter, his Newbury conqueror Master Chewy and Nigel Twiston-Davies-trained stablemate Matata complete the nine entries for the Grade One event.

Cheltenham Festival winners Caldwell Potter (Paul Nicholls), Myretown (Lucinda Russell) and Jango Baie (Henderson) feature amongst the 17 entries for the Huyton Asphalt Franny Blennerhassett Memorial Mildmay Novices’ Chase, with the latter’s Sandown conqueror, Ben Pauling’s Handstands, another notable name.

Gordon Elliott’s Supreme Novices’ Hurdle third Romeo Coolio is the headline draw in the Trustatrader Top Novices’ Hurdle, while there are 21 entries for the other top-level contest on the card, the Oddschecker Sefton Novices’ Hurdle.