ALAN Hill is hoping to not only give Victoria Pendleton a first point-to-point winner this season, but also to saddle a runner at Aintree.

The Aston Rowant trainer is looking for Broken Eagle to continue his upward curve and do enough to earn a place in the Foxhunter’s Chase over the Grand National fences in April.

The eight-year-old enjoyed a successful campaign in 2015/16, and Hill is optimistic an operation in the summer can bring out further improvement.

“If everything goes right, we will aim for the Foxhunter’s at Aintree,” he said.

“He ran well at Cheltenham, ran in the novice championship at Stratford and won four point-to-points with great ease.

“The major thing we have done with him is a wind op and if that has worked, we are very hopeful.”

He added: “I have been lucky to have horses running at Cheltenham and in the Foxhunter’s at Aintree. It’s like playing at Wembley, Twickenham or Lord’s – it’s what you do the job for.”

The addition of Pendleton’s Vesperal Dream gives Hill plenty of ammunition for the season, which started with a victory for stable stalwart Consigliere at Cottenham last weekend.

“Vesperal Dream looks a really, really nice horse,” the trainer said.

“Horizontal Speed is only eight and there could be a lot more to come from him, while Man of Steel won three hunter chases last season and will go for the second division hunter chasers.

“Pride of Parish won a race last season, we picked up a nice horse in Ireland called Alliebeag, who caught the eye as obviously we have the old stalwarts too.

“It’s always exciting as a new season starts.”

The spotlight last year was very much on Pendleton and her ambitious aim of riding at the Cheltenham Festival in conjunction with Betfair, who sponsored the challenge.

The Hill family – Lawney, Alan and son Joe – played a massive role in helping the former Olympic champion achieve this, and her fifth place aboard Pacha du Polder gave them much delight.

“We were all so involved with Victoria,” Alan said.

“What she did was an amazing piece of history for racing,” he said.

“Her finishing fifth was unbelievable – it felt like a winner.

“You can see why she is an Olympic athlete. Her capabilities are unbelievable. To get to the level she has so quickly is extraordinary.”

He added: “We were the day-in, day-out people.

“She came here brilliantly committed, riding out two or three lots a day. We were basically the factory.

“Yogi (Breisner) had done a brilliant job of getting her to ride, we then had to teach her to be a jockey.

“I don’t think to start with Betfair quite realised the steepness of the challenge. Some pretty heated conversations went on – never involving Victoria – I won’t go into detail, but then they got Barry Orr involved.

“He flew over from Dublin every Monday morning, came and spoke to us face-to-face and the project really took off.

“To see the smile on his face at Cheltenham was just brilliant.

“And when Yogi had a tear in his eye too – that really brought it home with what we had done.”

The relationship between the Hills and Pendleton continues to grow, and getting her a first point-to-point winner is a burning ambition.

“Victoria is a very good friend and came here on Christmas Day,” Hill added.

“She had a winner for Lawney at Newmarket on the flat in a charity race, has had some placed rides, but we need to get her the point-to-point winner.

“We hope she has bought a horse in Vesperal Dream that means she can realise that dream.”

He added: “She has taken racing into places in the press it has never been before.

“Tony McCoy did it when he won Sports Personality, and Victoria did it last year when she had a massive smile on her face on the front pages of national newspapers.”