A TASTE of the Grand National will be brought to Cartmel as trainer James Moffatt aims to up his preparations for the big race.

Moffatt's Highland Lodge is being targeted at the Aintree showpiece once more next spring after he just missed out on the final 40-horse field for this April's running.

Highland Lodge will first tackle the Becher Chase over the same National fences in December, looking to repeat his big-race success from that contest in 2015.

The 10-year-old – who was pulled up in the Scottish National at Ayr in his last run, a week after missing the cut for Aintree – has been resting at Moffatt's yard for the past few months.

But he will soon start building his preparations towards December's outing in Liverpool, with plans to erect a National-style fence on the Pit Farm Stables gallops in order to aid his progress.

It is a tactic used by other trainers in the past to prepare their mounts for the unique nature of the Aintree obstacles – which stand up to 5ft 2ins high and are made with a distinctive plastic birch coating, which replaced the traditional birch several years ago.

Moffatt hopes Cartmel Racecourse head groundsman Gary Sharp will be able to produce him a replica so that Highland Lodge can reacquaint himself with the test which lies ahead.

“It's another string to your bow,” said Moffatt of the move.

The Cartmel handler will be hopeful the handicap is kinder to his charge when the National weights come out than last year, when a pound more would have seen him run.

But he is certainly happy with how Highland Lodge has been in the yard during his rest period, and said: “He looks big and well and we are really happy with him. I'm really looking forward to that day.

“He was turned out for three months in the field to let him strengthen again. It's done a good job and at the moment he's up to one canter. We'll be stepping him up over the next couple of months to three canters and stronger work.”

Other options for Highland Lodge before the Becher Chase include a racecourse gallop, something which was tried at Carlisle last spring as part of the preparations for the aborted National bid.

But Moffatt is cautious of repeating that move and possibly taking too much out of a horse who already works hard at home having being brought into the yard last autumn.

“We did give him a racecourse gallop last year, but we will just see how it goes this time,” he said. “Last year, because we bought him, we didn't do anything like that, we stuck him straight in the Becher Chase off our own gallops.

“I'm quite happy with him not going for a racecourse gallop. We did take him before the Scottish National and I was left wondering if we did too much that day and overcooked things a bit. It clearly didn't suit him at Ayr.

“We'll keep him fresh for the Becher. He works hard at home, he's not best-suited to our gallops – he always finds the hill hard work. You can use that to your own advantage. There will be plenty of other horses who go up the hill easy at home.”