BANGOR-ON-DEE 'bumper' winner Rimsky is set for Aintree next month - and his victory on Saturday makes Nigel Twiston-Davies the trainer with the best winner-to-runner strike rate at the North Wales racecourse during the jump racing season.

Five winners from 11 runners is a record that his rival trainers would envy. It's a return to good fortune for the Welshman who almost gave up training horses three years ago.

Had Bindaree failed to win the Grand National in 2002, he would have gone back to farming in his homeland.

Even injuries to his star novice steeplechasers Fundamendalist and Ollie Magern - both of whom had been major prospects for

Cheltenham - have not diminished how excellent a season he has enjoyed with his horses.

Now four-year-old Rimsky - whose sire is 1997 St Leger winner and Derby runner-up Silver Patriarch - is set for a tilt at the Aintree bumper at next month's Grand National meeting.

In the main event, Bindaree should be joined by young pretender Baron Windrush from the Twiston-Davies yard. nThe first race at Bangor-on-Dee Racecourse on Saturday, April 2, is at 2.15pm. Admission to the Course Enclosure is £7, while the Paddock Enclosure is £14. Accompanied children enter free. For more information visit www.BangorOnDeeRaces.co.uk or ring 978 780323. nThe next racing at The Roodee is the three-day May Festival starting on Wednesday, May 4. Tickets are on sale now. For more information visit www.chester-races.co.uk or call 01244 304600.