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Alpha Des Obeaux and Top Notch feature among eight entries for the 188bet.co.uk Many Clouds Chase at Aintree on Saturday.

The newly-promoted Grade Two contest is named in honour of Oliver Sherwood's 2015 Grand National hero, who also claimed this race 12 months ago before suffering a pulmonary haemorrhage at Cheltenham in January after a thrilling victory over Thistlecrack in the Cotswold Chase.

The Mouse Morris-trained Alpha Des Obeaux would be an interesting contender if making the trip from Ireland following last month's triumph in the Clonmel Oil Chase.

The seven-year-old was putting it up to Thistlecrack on his only previous visit to Merseyside when falling at the final flight in the 2015 Sefton Novices' Hurdle.

Nicky Henderson's Top Notch has run well at Aintree over both hurdles and fences and was hugely impressive on his latest appearance at Ascot.

Trevor Hemmings, the owner of Many Clouds, has two representatives in Malcolm Jefferson's Cloudy Dream and the Paul Nicholls-trained Vicente.

Brian Ellison's Definitly Red, Nigel Twiston-Davies' Flying Angel, Dan Skelton's Virgilio and Shantou Flyer from Richard Hobson's yard complete the list.

Shantou Flyer was pulled up in the Betfair Chase at Haydock last month, but Hobson is confident he can show his true colours back on a sounder surface.

He said: " He's very well and didn't have a hard race at all at Haydock. He just couldn't hack it in that ground.

"He'll either go to Aintree on Saturday or Cheltenham on December 16. He is in great form and if he does run on Saturday, I think he'll run very well as the track, trip and ground will really suit him."