BARBURY Castle trainer Alan King saddled Oh Crick to a fourth successive victory in the handicap hurdle at Hereford in midweek, the trainer's 91st winner of the season.
However it did not earn the five-year-old a trip to the Cheltenham Festival with connections having their eye on the two-mile novice hurdle at Aintree following the Festival.
King said: "Cheltenham will come too quick for him as we only took the chance of running him here after his recent extra success as this was a £16,000 race.
He added: "There is a two-mile novice hurdle at the Grand National meeting which will give him plenty of time to recover. I think he will be a decent chaser next autumn whatever else he does this season."
King, needing just one more winner to equal his best tally of 92, drew level when odds on shot Otarie won the Mares Only Novices Hurdle at Southwell.
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