When a trainer sets up a yard on the Pembrokeshire coastline an aversion to travel is not an option.

Deciding on this location was a no-brainer for Rebecca Curtis given that the land was owned by her father. And she has proven herself to be willing to run her horses anywhere since starting out in 2008, which is just as well as her three closest racecourses are Ffos Las, Chepstow and Wexford in Ireland.

Her few trips across the Irish Sea have proven fruitless but she has harvested a rich crop elsewhere including a winner at each of the last three Cheltenham Festivals.

The first came with Teaforthree and he is favourite for the Crabbie's Grand National at Aintree. That will be a mere 167 miles on the clock for the horsebox but it was 494 yards that was the distance figuring more prominently in Curtis' mind 12 months ago.

Teaforthree was well fancied for last year's race, having won the National Hunt Chase over four miles at the Cheltenham Festival the previous season. He took up the lead at the 23rd fence and kept it until a mistake at the last. He then floundered on that 494-yard long run-in that has changed the result of the National so many times.

He finished third to Auroras Encore who had been receiving a stone, something that weighed on Curtis's mind as she tried to put the kaleidoscope of the previous 10 minutes into coherent thought.

"It was mixed feelings," she said after the race. "Before the race you're just hoping he gets round and comes home safe. And then you go from that feeling to watching him come third and feeling just a little bit of disappointment after that excitement of thinking you might win."

Teaforthree has not actually won for two years but a string of gritty performances, including being beaten by just half a length by Monbeg Dude in last season's Welsh National at Chepstow, make him a solid prospect for the National. "He won £120,000 last year without winning a race," Curtis said. "He's nearly always been there or thereabouts and that's why he's popular with the public."

Popular with the public but also not escaping the attention of the handicapper who does not deal in forgive and forget too quickly. "The worst one was the Welsh National - we were absolutely gutted about that. For finishing second we went up 8lb and, had that not happened, he might well have won the National."

There has been a modicum of assistance from that direction this time around for Teaforthree and Liverpool has been the direction that he has been heading in since he arrived from Ireland four years ago.

"He was a bit backward but we always knew he'd make a nice staying chaser," Curtis said. "That was going to be his job."

Curtis takes her job seriously and a 26% winners-to-runners strike-rate for March proves it. The 32-year-old mother of two may be destined to be the poster girl this week, but none of that will concern her as she puts the finishing touches to a year's work and tries to work out how the horse known as Tom can finish two places better.

"His main asset is his jumping and the only mistake he made was at the last. That just took the stuffing out of him and he's carrying 5lbs less than last year.

"Weight makes a massive difference at the end of a race like that. The winner was carrying a light weight and that just told in the end. He was galloping on his own up the run-in and once Cappa Bleu, who finished second, joined him he got going again. He just needed a bit of company."

Conversely that is not what Teaforthree enjoys the rest of the time which is why he will again be ridden prominently by his jockey, Nick Scholfield. "He doesn't like being crowded or held up and, the way he jumps, I'd rather him be out there than getting into trouble. There's so many bad-luck stories of horses getting brought down. So the best place for him is in front."

Curtis gives every indication that her career will go the full distance. Saturday will prove whether Teaforthree can do the same.