Last year's Martell Grand National fourth Addington Boy, retired after coming home last of 10 finishers in the Murphy's Gold Cup at Cheltenham in November, is on the comeback trail.
Explaining the change of heart, West Witton trainer Ferdy Murphy said: 'We decided to retire him after the Murphy's - Adrian (Maguire) said they went too fast for him - and the owner sent him to my sister, Mary, in Ireland but he just wouldn't settle.
'So she sent him to Liz Doyle, who trains point-to-pointers on the sands at Wexford, and Liz phoned me up and said 'this horse is flying' which came as no surprise because when ever we took him to the beach at Redcar he used to love it.
'I went across on Tuesday morning to sit on him and he is absolutely bombing so he's on his way back to West Witton.' Murphy is aiming the gelding at Aintree again.
He said: 'He'll have one more run before the National and if there is good ground at Aintree who knows?'
Whatever his fate in the Grand National connections still intend to retire Addington Boy this summer.
Murphy said: 'He's been in training for eight years now and getting turned away in the winter didn't seem to suit him - he was still expecting to be trained.
'Previously he had always been turned out during the summer, so we'll turn him out again this summer but this time just not bring him back.'
