Direct Route could bid to repeat last year's Aintree/Punchestown double, Howard Johnson revealed yesterday.

Options are being kept open for the eight-year-old, who bounced back to form when third in last week's Champion Chase. But the gelding won Grade One novice chases at the two big April meetings last year and he could appear at both again this season.

"We will put him in the Mumm Melling - it is two and a half miles but I have always though he will get it on a flat track - and the two-mile Red Rum Limited Handicap at Aintree," Johnson said.

"Then there is the Grade One two-mile handicap chase at Punchestown, so we will have to sit down this week with Norman Williamson and decide what we are going to do."

Direct Route had suffered from dehydration and a broken blood vessel when below form on his previous run at Ascot. "Norman said he was just below what he was when he won the Tingle Creek at Sandown but you need to be 105 per cent to win at the Festival.

"He has come out of the race well and mark my words you will see a different horse when we get him back on the flat track.

"We don't mind taking Call Equiname on again, we are not running away from him yet!"

Kieren Fallon looks set to miss the ride on Chewit in next Saturday's Lincoln at Doncaster due to suspension.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club yesterday decided to impose a one-day whip ban, pending since Fallon completed a three-month stint in the province recently, next Saturday.