Kitty's Light on road to crack at the 2024 Grand National

Kitty’s Light is set to take the first steps on the road to the 2024 Grand National as racing returns to Aintree Racecourse this weekend.

The Christian Williams-trained seven-year-old – who landed three long-distance chases last season when winning the Eider Chase, Scottish Grand National and Bet365 Gold Cup – will run first over hurdles in the next couple of weeks before his first big target, the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury on December 2. Kitty's Light is now rated 147 and that will be enough to let him take his place in the Aintree showpiece in the spring – which Welsh trainer Williams has as his main target for the season.

Williams said: “He’s in good form and I might give him a run over hurdles before Newbury because he thrived on his racing last year. Hopefully we’ll then take him to Newbury for the gallops morning about a week before and the plan then will be all systems go for the Coral Gold Cup, we like to have runners in these prestigious races. He had a spin in a charity race at Chepstow recently and while I wouldn’t take much notice of that, it was great to see him on the racecourse. A lot of his season is geared around the Grand National but his other big aim is Newbury to try to win that. He’s 147 now so he should be in the top 34 for the National, he’d be very unlucky if he missed out. He will probably stay over hurdles apart from the Coral Gold Cup, though.”

The sponsors make Jonjo O’Neill’s Monbeg Genius their 6-1 favourite for the Gold Cup at Newbury next month followed by Dan Skelton’s Midnight River, who is also entered in this Sunday's Jewson Old Roan Limited Handicap Chase – the Grade Two feature of a seven-race card as Aintree hosts its first meeting of the new season.

Last year's Grand National hero