Ryedale is set to have a representative in the Martell Grand National on Saturday week.

Niki Dee, who finished third in the world-famous Aintree marathon in 2000, is set for another crack at the £500,000 event - provided conditions do not resemble last year's quagmire which resulted in only two of the National runners completing the course without mishap.

Trainer Peter Beaumont, fresh from his recent success at the Cheltenham Festival with Hussard Collonges in the Royal & SunAlliance Novices' Chase, is preparing to run Niki Dee without the benefit of a previous race this season.

Indeed, the gelding also missed the whole of last term because of injury, so he will be making his first public appearance at Aintree for some 23 months. Beaumont had hoped to get a prep race into the 12-year-old, but the wet weather thwarted those plans.

"There were nice races for him at Uttoxeter and Bangor, but the ground was heavy at both tracks, so I couldn't run him, which was disappointing," said Beaumont, who is now banking on the next best thing.

"I am hoping to give him a gallop on a racecourse sometime this week," he revealed. "The horse seems very well, and has done everything I've asked him to do."

Niki Dee proved a surprise package to many two years ago in the National. Ridden by the now-retired Robbie Supple, he was sent off at 25-1, but belied those odds by filling third place behind Papilion and Mely Moss.

Unfortunately, he succumbed to injury a month later, which neccessitated a long time out of action. Beaumont explained: "He had a bit of a leg problem years ago, but came back afterwards and finished second at Cheltenham and third in the National.

"Unfortunately, the last time he was injured was at Punchestown, when he lost a shoe going into a fence, hit it hard and did himself a bit of damage. We got him going again last season, but we struggled with him and never got him back on the racecourse, which is why he missed last year's National."

Niki Dee has been allotted 9st 9lb in this season's showpiece event, which means he will be 5lb out of the handicap proper unless one or two of the top-weights come out causing the weights to rise.

Beaumont said: "I would like Russ Garritty to ride him, but unless the weights do go up, Russ will have to put up overweight on him."

If Garritty, rider of Hussard Collonges at Cheltenham, does have to miss the ride, Beaumont is considering offering the mount to David O'Meara, Tim Easterby's conditional jockey, who has enjoyed a purple patch recently and who, as an amateur rider two seasons ago, won the Aintree Foxhunters' Chase - over the National fences - on Bells Life for trainer Phillip Hobbs.

Beaumont, who gave O'Meara the leg-up on Bengal Boy, a winner at Bangor last Saturday, said: "David would have no trouble doing 10st and it is a plus that he has ridden a winner over the Grand National course."

Beaumont's main concern at the moment is the weather. Only too well aware that monsoon conditions affected Merseyside last year and turned the Aintree course into a mudbath, he would not risk Niki Dee in the unlikely event of a repetition.

"I would be happy with good-to-soft ground, but he wouldn't want it any deeper than that," said Beaumont. "I would like to run him at Aintree, and that is the plan at the moment," he confirmed. "But if the ground does go against him, we may wait and run him in the Scottish Grand National instead."

Bob Woodhouse is toying with the idea of running Donnybrook in a race over the Grand National fences at Aintree next week.

The Welburn trainer produced the gelding to win at Newcastle on Monday under Richard McGrath and revealed afterwards: "Richard says this horse jumps so well, he ought to have a go at the John Hughes Chase at Aintree."

Donnybrook's 9-2 victory provided Woodhouse with a much-belated first winner of what he describes as "a nightmare of a season." He explained: "My horses just haven't been getting home. This is the first horse I've sent out this season that has been right."

Tom O'Ryan is a staff writer for the Racing Post.

Updated: 09:47 Thursday, March 28, 2002