Trainer Chris Gordon – who used to race for ‘a packet of crisps and a pickled egg’ – chasing huge payday at Aintree

A typically game performance from Aucunrisque who completes the hat-trick with success in the £60,000 Dovecote Novices' Hurdle for @tomcannon2 & @chrisgordon68 at @kemptonparkrace pic.twitter.com/iOPaYEkjRV

— Racing TV (@RacingTV) February 26, 2022

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Now unfancied horse and unfashionable trainer have a chance of glory on one of sport’s most famous stages.

Gordon has flirted with the big time in the past with the likes of King Edmund and Highway One O Two, but he has never even had a top-level runner before.

He has shown if he has the ammunition he can deliver the goods, and in Aucunrisque, winner of the Grade 2 Dovecote at Kempton last time, he has a potent weapon.

He said: “It’s a big week for a yard like ours. We have 60 horses but we aren’t exactly regulars at the big festivals.

“Aucunrisque has been a great story for us. He has done nothing but improve since we have gone hurdling.

“There was a temptation to have a crack at a handicap off his mark, because we’re certain he is better than 133.

“But we will probably be stuck in handicaps for the rest of our lives and you have to dream big.

“He is a very good novice and we think plenty of him. He has earned a crack at a Grade 1.

“For an inexperienced horse he is very straightforward, he will gallop and jump. He is honest as the day is long.

“They didn’t go quick enough in the Dovecote for him to show his absolute best and he had to tough it out.”If he can get out in front and rock and roll, it will take a good one to go with him.

“I’m usually a pessimistic b***er, but I’m confident of a good run and expect him to put his best foot forward.”

The celebrations in Liverpool city centre would be something to behold if the six-year-old can get the job done.

When he won the Dovecote, the trainer was mobbed by owner Julian Norman and his pals in the winners’ enclosure.

Gordon was just a few days away from completing ‘dry February’ before the horse bagged the big race — meaning he had to cut short his abstinence from booze.

He joked: “I’d gone nearly the entire month without a drink — it  would have been an amazing achievement for me. We had a good day at Kempton so I was tempted into London afterwards.

“They had a minibus. I was greeted with chants of ‘drink, drink, drink’ when I got on board, so I gave into the pressure.

“I was like a human kettle by 11 o’clock, walking along with steam coming out of my ears.

“Life is too short, you have to enjoy and celebrate the good days. Hopefully the horse can give us another one.”