SUN Alliance Chase runner-up Mr Mulligan will bypass the Hennessy Gold Cup in favour of Chepstow's Rehearsal Chase on December 7th, where he will be ridden by leading conditional Richard Johnson.

Johnson was replaced aboard Marching Marquis, owned like Mr Mulligan by Michael Worcester, at Exeter last week, having been unseated from the same horse at Cheltenham on October 29th.

But Worcester denied that the move constituted sacking Johnson, and yesterday Mr Mulligan's trainer Noel Chance confirmed: "It was a storm in a tea cup and it has all been sorted out now.

"Barring any unforeseen accidents, Mr Mulligan will run in the Rehearsal Chase at Chepstow and will be ridden by Richard Johnson, who will be on all our horses.

"I hadn't been able to work him until the rains came, but he has been working well and is full of the joys of spring."