Nick Kent has Haydock in mind for promising Erne River

Erne River could kick his season off at Haydock next weekend in the Get Daily Rewards With Betfair Graduation Chase.

The Nick Kent-trained seven-year-old was twice a winner last term, claiming back-to-back novice chases by considerable margins at Doncaster and Wetherby.

He then went on to line up at Grade One level in the Manifesto Novices’ Chase at Aintree, where he fell at the 10th fence when seeming to hold every chance.

Rerouted to Sandown for the Oaksey Chase as a result, the bay was then third after the race got off to an odd start when Mister Fisher jinked at the tapes and Saint Calvados, the eventual winner, was gifted a significant lead.

The race still served its purpose as Erne River ended the season with a confidence-giving run after the Aintree fall, and Haydock is now his likely starting point providing there is enough cut in the ground.

“We’re planning to enter for Haydock next week, there’s an intermediate chase so that’s what we’re heading for at the moment,” Kent said.

“We need some rain, I pray for rain! It’s been so extreme, the weather. The plan is Haydock as long as we don’t get good ground.

“He’s a big, strong horse and we feel he’s matured over the summer. We’ve got to have a run to get going and the intermediate chase route is the route we’re going down, though I haven’t ruled out long-distance hurdles with him either. We’ll just see what’s about and what ground we get.”

Reflecting on the tail-end of last season, the trainer added: “It was a strange race at Sandown, but we wanted to finish the season on a clear round so it actually worked out all right for him and he picked up a bit of prize-money for coming third.

“It was a pity as the race fell apart at the start, but I wouldn’t say he was his best that day. He hadn’t been trained for that race, it was an afterthought because of what happened at Aintree and I feel he’s better going left-handed anyway.

“That (Aintree) was a real shame, we’ll never know where he would have finished. Inexperience caught him out, those big, stiff fences around Aintree – you can’t make any mistakes.

“It wasn’t entirely his fault, everything seemed to happen at the same time and his inexperience caught him out.”