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Paul Nicholls is planning to bypass the Weatherbys Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival with Danny Kirwan.

The Ditcheat handler is favouring an outing in a Grade Two heat at Aintree on April 13 with the five-year-old, who was an impressive winner at Kempton on Saturday.

"I'm not a great fan of the Champion Bumper and I don't want to do that. If we run again it will be at Aintree, then he will go hurdling in the autumn," said Nicholls.

"He is a very nice horse and he travelled well into the race at Kempton. He is a nice horse for the future as a jumper, not as a bumper horse. He has won his point-to-point and done plenty of jumping at home."

Among those Danny Kirwan could take on at Aintree is the Oliver Sherwood-trained Severano, who also struck at the Sunbury track earlier this month.

Sherwood said: "He will go to Aintree for the Grade Two bumper there on the Friday.

"He is a nice horse to go hurdling with next season and is the sort of horse you want to get out of bed in the morning for. It is nice to have a youngster like that.

"He showed me what he was showing at home on the track and you always hope to see that."