Sam Waley-Cohen will be hoping The Young Master can carry him into the Grand National winners’ enclosure for the first time, when the duo hit the track at Aintree on April 8th. Very few jockeys can match Sam Waley-Cohen’s record over the Aintree fences. Despite his failure to win National Hunt racing’s most famous contest, the amateur rider has finished a close second with Oscar Time behind Ballabriggs in 2010, before coming home fourth on the same horse two years later. The pair finally enjoyed Aintree success together when Waley-Cohen and Oscar Time won the 2014 Becher Chase. Combine that…
Author: GrandNationalpro Staff
David Pipe will be sending Vieux Lion Rouge and Ballynagour to Aintree next month as they both look to land the Grand National title on their second attempt. Fourteen years after his father, Martin won his one and only Grand National title, David Pipe cheered along with the crowd as Comply Or Die carried the tag of favouritism into the Aintree winners enclosure when he won the 2008 Grand National. He will be hoping his maturing chaser, Vieux Lion Rouge can follow in his former stablemates footsteps and win from the top of the market. Following Minella Rocco’s withdrawal, Pipe’s…
After watching his charge come within a whisker of claiming Grand National glory in 2016, we take a look at what Kim Bailey had to say about The Last Samuri’s chances of taking the title next month. Scaling the final fence in the 2016 Grand National, The Last Samuri had every chance of winning. He had led the way for the entire second circuit at Aintree and his jumping had remained smooth and precise as challengers either side had crumbled under the pressure. With the finishing line in sight, David Bass asked his charge to push on once again, but…
Injuries to Ryan Hatch and his son, William has led to Nigel Twiston-Davies turning to Noel Fehily, as he confirmed booking the in-form jockey to ride Blaklion in the upcoming Grand National. There were scenes of high emotion and jubilation when Blaklion pulled away after the last fence at Cheltenham and landed the 2016 RSA Chase title for Nigel Twiston-Davies and his team. Young jockey, Ryan Hatch gave him a fantastic ride that day, storming away from several more established rivals, jumping the last beautifully and pounding up the hill to land a maiden Grade 1 title for both the…
The Aintree Festival is almost upon us, with the Grand National at the forefront of the minds of trainers, jockeys and punters all over the world.Wading through current listings of entrants in the Grand National can be tricky and tedious, so here are the 40 runners at the top of the weights who are in pole position to start the 2017 Grand National. Number, name, age, weight, trainer. 1) CARLINGFORD LOUGH 11 11-10 John Kiely (IRE) 2) THE LAST SAMURI 9 11-09 Kim Bailey 3) ALELCHI INOIS 9 11-07 Willie Mullins (IRE) 4) MORE OF THAT 9 11-05 Jonjo O’Neill (IRE) 5) SHANTOU FLYER 7 11-04 Rebecca Curtis 6) PERFECT CANDIDATE 10…
James Moffat expressed his excitement to the local Cumbrian media yesterday, as he prepares Highland Lodge for a tilt at the Grand National at the Aintree festival. It was quite a turn up for the books when 20/1 shot, Highland Lodge scaled the Grand National fences and bolted home to win the 2015 Becher Chase. Not many onlookers will have been as shocked by this victory as trainer James Moffatt, who only purchased the eleven-year-old from Emma Lavelle less than a month before his storming victory at Aintree. Despite that victory, he missed out on a spot in the Grand…
Following a successful Cheltenham Festival, Nicky Henderson will send a strong group of challengers to the Aintree Festival as he looks to claim his fourth British Champion Trainer title. After Might Bite followed in the footsteps of Altior and Buveur D’Air and secured a stunning victory in the RSA Chase, Nicky Henderson will have been hoping to end this year’s Cheltenham Festival as the Top Trainer. Sadly, no more winners materialised over the last two-and-a-half days, despite several of his runners putting in excellent performances. Although he may not have walked away with Top Trainer honours at Cheltenham, Henderson’s festival…
Sam Twiston-Davies confirmed to the media this afternoon that he has chosen to ride Saphir Du Rheu in the upcoming Grand National at Aintree. Saphir Du Rheu had become a bit of an enigma in the National Hunt world over the past two years. No-one would have guessed, when watching Paul Nicholls charge destroy his Grade 1 rivals by 15 lengths to win the Mildmay Novices’ Chase at the 2015 Aintree Festival, that less than two years later he would have to drop down to a Class 2 at Kelso to recapture his winning touch. After an eight-race winless run,…
After missing the Cheltenham Festival through injury, both Barry Geraghty and Derek Fox are targeting the Grand National as the stage for their long-awaited returns. Barry Geraghty had featured in all of the last 16 Cheltenham Festivals, but a crashing fall on Charli Parcs in the Adonis Hurdle at Kempton, and a subsequent collision with a passing horse, left the 37-year-old Irishman with several broken ribs and a punctured lung. It will have been a bitter pill to swallow for Geraghty, having to miss out on the Cheltenham Festival and he was forced to watch as Noel Fehily rode Buveur…
After falling at the first hurdle on his quest for the triple-triple of festival Foxhunter titles, On The Fringe will return to action at Aintree as he looks to bounce back to winning ways. On The Fringe created history last season. Enda Bolger’s charge won the Foxhunters races at the Cheltenham, Aintree and Punchestown Festival for the second year in a row, becoming the first horse ever to land the double-triple of Foxhunters festival titles. A runner-up finish to Foxrock on his one and only pre-festival prep run was an encouraging start to the season in February and On The…