SMITH IS SIMPLY FOUR-SOME

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SUE SMITH continued her domination of the Peter Marsh Chase at Haydock when Wakanda gave her a fourth victory in the contest.

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The trainer (right) who won with The Last Fling (2000), Artic Jack (2004) and Cloudy Too (2016), is now expected to target the gelding at one of the Nationals in the spring.

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“Maybe the Scottish National,” said rider Danny Cook. “I’m not so sure about the Grand National for him. He’s a very good stayer who jumps great and travelled great today. ★

“Even when he got in tight to one or two of the fences, he picked himself up and was very quickly away from them, so I knew I was in for a good ride even at that early stage.

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“He’s got a great attitude and did it well.”

But dreams of a second Grand National victory for the pride of Scotland, One For Arthur, are not going to plan for the 2017 winner.

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For the second time this season he unseated his rider – this time at the fourth last.

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Even his most ardent supporters would be struggling to make a convincing case about the gelding getting round the course let alone winning the race for a second time and the gelding’s trainer Lucinda Russell said: “He’s still a little bit rusty and did go a bit left at his fences, so we’ll have to sort that out.

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“I don’t know if he’s feeling something – we’ll have to get him checked out.

“He looks fine but obviously it was a bit disappointing.”

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Colin Tizzard’s Robinsfirth, the runner-up, was the eye-catcher in the race as he was returning to the track after an absence of 400 days.

CHRIS GOULDING