Paul Nicholls has enthused over Thyme White's credentials for a Cheltenham race he likes to win.
The Grand Annual has been won by a Ditcheat-trained horse twice in the past six years.
This year's prime candidate to make it three struck at Doncaster over the festive period – and has not raced since.
Nicholls nominated the unexposed chaser, 16-1 with bookmakers Skybet, as a likely type for the Wednesday handicap.
"He really caught my eye this morning, he worked beautifully on softish ground," he said.
"He looks great, he's a lovely big horse. He's got to overcome a bit of inexperience obviously, he has only had three runs over fences but that means he may get in on a nice mark.
"He does travel and jump well so I'd like to think he's got a great chance in that."
Nicholls has kept Thyme White off the track with Cheltenham in mind, as he bids to follow the stable's recent winners Solar Impulse (2016) and Le Prezien (2018).
"He went to Doncaster the next day when they went a gallop with Bryony (Frost) on him and he absolutely dotted up.
"We just thought if we are going to the Grand Annual and be competitive we don't want to win again and be rated 150.
"If we're going to have a chance, let's go in on a good mark. So we have protected his mark a little bit by not running him."
Outside of the handicaps, Nicholls believes unbeaten novice Bravemansgame (Brown Advisory), Bob And Co (Hunters' Chase) and Stage Star (Ballymore) are his strongest contenders.
Of the latter, the six-and-a-half length Challow scorer, he said: "Harry (Cobden) was really impressed with he way he did things that day.
"We just don't know how good he might be. He has basically followed the same route as we did with Bravemansgame last year.
"He was ready to go to Exeter a fortnight ago but the ground was so heavy that day, I didn't want to give him a hard race for nothing so we kept him nice and fresh and he's in good shape.
Nicholls added: "He's probably one of our best chances of the week I'd say."
