John Smith's Grand National winner Numbersixvalverde will set off back down the road to Aintree glory with an outing in a three-mile hurdle at Leopardstown over Christmas.
Trainer Martin Brassil plans to give the 10-year-old three starts before heading back to Aintree in April - with two runs over timber and a crack at the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup his favoured option.
Brassil, speaking at a John Smith's and Aintree press visit to his Curragh yard, confirmed: 'I hope to start him back in a three-mile hurdle over Christmas.
'Depending how he gets on I would plan to run him three times before Aintree - twice over hurdles and I might make him an entry in the Hennessy at Leopardstown in February.
'We have always mixed hurdling and chasing with him, but I don't think he is good enough to go and win a Grade One against the likes of Kicking King.'
Winner of the Irish Grand National in 2005, Numbersixvalverde inflicted a six-length defeat on the previous year's winner, Hedgehunter, in the Liverpool showpiece in the spring.
Brassil is now hoping for another bold show next April.
He added: "He is a very sound horse to train and had a three-month summer break, which he spent at Kevin Manning's yard.
"He definitely improved between his Irish National win and his English National win - he became a much stronger horse.
'I hope he can go back to Aintree with a really good memory of the place as he came back last year without a cut or a mark on him. "He is so clever and keeps himself out of trouble.
'I would hope that there will be an ease in the ground in Aintree and I hope to get him back there in the same shape, but you always need a bit of luck, especially in that race."
However, Brassil acknowledges the huge task his charge faces in winning the marathon chase two years running. He said: 'Whatever he does now is a bonus as he has achieved so much for me. I think it is more difficult to win back-to-back Grand Nationals these days.
'In the 1970s, lower-class horses were winning it, but you now have Gold-Cup calibre horses at the top of the weights and Numbersix' is going to be rated close to them.'
