Martell Grand National hope Addington Boy is set to return to action in the Kings Arms Handicap Chase at Kelso on Friday.
Ferdy Murphy's 12-year-old, fourth to Bobbyjo in last year's Aintree showpiece, was turned away after disappointing in the Murphy's Gold Cup at Cheltenham last November.
But he failed to settle in his retirement in Ireland and returned to Murphy earlier this year to be prepared for another tilt at the Grand National.
"He's in tremendous shape and will run at Kelso _ he's already worked round there - and 'JP' (McNamara) will ride him," Murphy said today.
"We could wait for Cheltenham with him but if the ground there was bottomless he would miss out so we decided to run him at Kelso and get a race under his belt, although the plan is still to run him at Cheltenham before Aintree."
Addington Boy is currently priced at 40-1 by Ladbrokes for the Grand National.
Murphy also has Paris Pike in the Kelso race and he added: "Paris Pike is a nice horse with a nice weight and he worked brilliantly last week."
The much-travelled Paddy's Return is also entered at the Scottish track but will instead head for Doncaster the following day.
"Basically he's a good-ground horse and will go to Doncaster on Saturday for the Grimthorpe," Murphy said.
The West Witton trainer had hoped Paddy's Return, who has recently returned from a successful spell in the south of France (won the Grande Course de Haies at Cagnes-sur-Mer), would get invited to go to Japan for the Nakayama Grand Jump in April.
He said: "Paddy's has been bouncing since he came back from France but he didn't get selected for Japan which came as a bit of a surprise as he has won Grade One races and won in England, Ireland and France.
"I can't understand the selecting process and I thought his win at Cagnes would have clinched it for him.
"But I won't lose any sleep over it - there's a 50-grand race at Enghien in June that he'll go for."
