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…
Author: GrandNationalpro Staff
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…
More Of That will be Jonjo O’Neill’s main challenger in the Grand National and he is confident his former Cheltenham champion can do the business on his maiden run at Aintree. When Jonjo O’Neill claimed at the start of this season that More Of That was the best horse he has ever trained, punters all over Britain and Ireland pulled their wallets out of the pockets, awaiting the first chance to lump on More Of That when he made his return to action. The nine-year-old produced one of the best performances in recent Cheltenham Festival history back in 2014, when…
Foxrock has been backed by many in the build-up to the Grand National, but the horse’s owner, Barry Connell confirmed to the media that the Irish Grand National may be his chosen race this season. When searching for a potential Grand National winner, Foxrock ticks plenty of boxes. Before this season, Ted Walsh’s nine-year-old had spent the last few years holding his own in some of the biggest staying chases on the National Hunt scene. He finished well in the Irish Hennessy, the Lexus Chase and the Irish Gold Cup and even twice ran in feature races at the Cheltenham…
Pineau De Re is being aimed for a second Grand National victory Get the latest news from the 2014 Aintree hero’s trainer Dr Richard Newland, who trained Pineau De Re to win the Aintree Grand National, is hoping his 2014 hero and his other intended runner, Royale Knight, both make the field for this year’s contest on Saturday April 9. The Lambourn-based handler has been finalising preparations for his duo with Pineau De Re partnered by Brian Hughes in popping over two replica Grand National fences twice, as did Royale Knight who was ridden by Brendan Powell jnr. Newland said:…
Kerry Lee hopes to crown a memorable first season as a trainer with victory in the £1million Crabbie’s Grand National at Aintree on Saturday April 9 with Bishops Road. The Herefordshire handler has enjoyed a string of big-race successes since taking over the licence from her father Richard at the start of the season, including a first Grade One triumph with Kylemore Lough in the Ryanair Gold Cup Novices’ Chase at Fairyhouse on Easter Sunday. Bishops Road has been another success story for the stable with a 100% record since being bought out of Henry De Bromhead’s yard in September…
With the Grand National just around the corner now that the Cheltenham Festival is past, Brian Healy picks out three potential winners of the Aintree marathon in April. The Cheltenham Festival might be done and dusted for another year, but the top class National Hunt racing hasn’t quite reached the end of the road just yet, and the Crabbie’s Grand National is the next big jumps race in the calendar to loom over just over the horizon. The Aintree marathon is the world’s most famous race, and always represents a hugely competitive affair with a large field of 40 entrants…