LEADING National Hunt owner, Trevor Hemmings, has another potential star on his hands courtesy of Baron Monty (2.30), bidding for a three-timer in Haydock's £20,000 Red Square Novices Hurdle Final, writes Colin Woods.

Hemmings, fresh from a deserved double at the Cheltenham Festival, has made his considerable fortune from holiday attractions such as Blackpool Tower. A passionate lover of jump racing, his lifetime ambition has always been to win the Grand National, a race for which Baron Monty might easily be destined in years to come.

Meanwhile there is still plenty of cash to be made over hurdles with Baron Monty, who absolutely skittled his rivals with a bloodless seven-length course and distance success last time out.

It was a performance that will surely have pleased his able trainer, Billingham-based Chris Grant, himself no stranger to tackling the National fences aboard Arthur Stephenson's Durham Edition, a real Aintree favourite many moons ago.

Baron Monty, a gelding by the prolific winning sire Supreme Leader, possesses an immaculate jumping pedigree, which is already standing the Teesside gelding in a good stead.

Unless conditions change dramatically, he's going to encounter mush faster ground than in the past, but judging by the way Grant's youngster is progressing, the sky is the limit for the fast-improving five-year-old.

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