Gavin Sheehan has been provisionally pencilled in to ride Black Thunder in the Grand National at Aintree on Saturday.
The Irish jockey partnered the nine-year-old in a workout at Wincanton last week and the upcoming event will be the first competitive link-up with trainer Paul Nicholls.
Black Thunder is not in the greatest vein of form at the moment, with the last victory coming at Sandown back in December 2014 when comfortably beating Rocky Bender in second.
The only stumbling block ahead of the National is the fact the black gelding is up for auction at the Goffs UK Aintree Sale on Thursday and a switch in trainer would mean Sheehan may have to look elsewhere.
“It will be Gavin’s first ride for me, but he rode him in work during the week at Wincanton,” Nicholls told the Telegraph. “It just depends if the horse gets sold and what they want to do. A lot can still happen.”
Nicholls will saddle five other horses in the race – Unioniste, Wonderful Charm, Just A Par, Rocky Creek and Silviniaco Conti – and Nicholls admits the latter is most likely to triumph.
He added: “The main one is Conti, he’s a seven-time Grade One winner, he’s very well and trained for the race.”
