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Yes, tiggers, he was heavily backed down to 9/2f for the 2015 Hennessy off 163, having won the G1 Aintree novice chase by 15 lengths, but never really got competitive that day after a bad blunder mid-race. If he was going to win that race he'd have needed to be a top notch Gold Cup winner as it was the hottest Hennessy probably since Galway Blaze's. As it is, he still posted a Grade 1 figure that day but then reverted to hurdling. He disappointed when returned to fences but I now suspect the plan to go for this year's National had already been hatched. He never really looked seriously asked to beat Antony first time up this season in he Hennessy prep and he fell there, as you say. I'd ignore his next run back down in trip even though he was second. They were probably just checking his speed that day. He then apparently jumped very fluently at Kelso in an exhibition in a weak race that was never going to affect his OR. Then he ran superbly in the Gold Cup, not looking at all out of place (unlike Many Clouds before he won) and for my money wasn't asked too many questions up the hill. With a harder race he might have been second but why leave his chances there. I reckon it was a case of win if the race falls into your hands but Aintree is the plan. For me, he's a 170+ Grade 1 chaser getting in off 156.