Evan Williams is to target Barizan at the Paddy Power Imperial Cup at Sandown

Evan Williams: Could bid for the Imperial Cup with Barizan

Evan Williams is likely to aim Barizan at the Paddy Power Imperial Cup at Sandown after he bounced back to form at Taunton recently.

The Llancarfan handler fears the seven-year-old will not be rated high enough to run at the Cheltenham Festival where he has two entries.

However, he is hoping he might get into the valuable handicap hurdle at the Esher track on Saturday.

Williams was delighted Barizan, a Grade One scorer as a novice, got back in the winning vein after having had a long time off through injury.

"He's gone up 4lb. It probably won't be enough to get him into the Festival," said the trainer.

"It might not be enough to get him into something like the Imperial Cup, but that is something we would look at.

"We will enter him for it and we'll aim him for that race and then we'll see how he goes from there.

"It was great he won and the little horse has got a bit of confidence back. It was just nice to see him win and he can run in a few bigger races in the spring."