NEXT Sensation, owned by local business man Mark Blandford and trained by Michael Scudamore at Bromsash near Ross, could run at the forthcoming Cheltenham meeting this Friday his trainer announced yesterday.

The improving seven-year-old ran turned in a great front-running performance race in the Grand Annual at the Festival back in March, going 20 lengths clear at one point before tiring and being caught after the last before fading into fourth.

On his seasonal reappearance at Ascot recently he made a bad mistake early on in the race and never took much part behind the winner Ulck Du Lin, but Michael Scudamore reported him none the worse for the race exertions.

Scudamore stated: "He made a mistake where he took off outside the wings and landed on top of the fence which knocked the stuffing out of him," "He's come back fine and is in at Cheltenham on Friday.

"Tom (Scudamore) looked after him and he's in good form again, so I'll talk to the owner but it's likely he'll run."

Scudamore also had news of his other stable star, Monbeg Dude, who will run in either the Becher Chase at Aintree or the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury as his early season targets.

"The handicapper put him up to 146 after his run at Chepstow but we need to decide whether to run with a low weight in the Hennessy or run with a bit more in the Becher."