Vaughan counting on Shilling for Festival pay day

Welsh sporting success shows no signs of abating with their rugby union side on course for another Grand Slam and next month could see a first Cheltenham Festival win for Glamorgan trainer Tim Vaughan.

The former point-to-point rider is having a successful season saddling 42 winners so far, and his prolific scorer Little Shilling is set to continue his remarkable season and go directly to Cheltenham to contest the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys' Hurdle, while Ski Sunday, who has won two hurdle races in the past week, will go for the Fred Winter Juvenile Novices' Hurdle.

Little Shilling has won all six starts for Vaughan over both hurdles and fences and has risen an incredible 53lb in the ratings to a current mark of 130.

Peter Bowen, Evans Williams and Alison Thorpe have raised the bar for Welsh trainers with their success and Vaughan is intent on following their lead.

"I want to be champion trainer," he said. "I'm not saying I'll get there, but that's the plan."

All four Wales-based handlers are in the top 30 in the British Jump Trainers Championship, with Vaughan 17 winners behind Williams, but three in front of Bowen, who won the Grade 1 Betfair Chase with Snoopy Loopy last November.

Vaughan, 29, said: "To me Peter Bowen is a God and Evan has been an inspiration. I saw what Evan was doing, and thought, 'hey, I could do that'."