'There’s 30 to 40 of them on a boat to Liverpool from America' - Shark Hanlon plotting new Aintree fairytale

Shark Hanlon knows a thing or two about writing fairytales but even Hollywood's most imaginative scriptwriters might baulk at his latest storyline as he reports Cape Gentleman to be in fine fettle after schooling over Aintree fences at the Curragh on Tuesday in preparation for Saturday's Grand National.

An Irish Cesarewitch winner with Emmet Mullins, Cape Gentleman was purchased out of the Mullins yard late last year with a view to running in the Randox-sponsored National for Hanlon. The seven-year-old will don the same colours as Sergeant Murphy, who landed the Aintree prize 100 years ago for owner Stephen Sanford, the great-grandfather of Cape Gentleman's current owner Pierre Manigault.

Speaking from the Curragh, Hanlon said: "It would be a great story. We are just after schooling him over the Aintree fences at the Curragh and he was absolutely brilliant over them. He stayed very well on the Flat and I just think in the last couple of weeks, he's really come to himself and I couldn’t be happier with him. Jody McGarvey will ride him and I don’t think he’ll mind which way the ground is too much, although I do think the drier the better he will be."