Tini’s time
PAUL JACOBS THINKS FORMER GOLD CUP RUNNER-UP CAN LAND SATURDAY’S GRAND NATIONAL AT AINTREE
SANTINI can end a run of big-race seconditus when he lines up against 39 rivals in Saturday’s Randox Grand National at Aintree.
The greatest race in the world finally offers this stamina-laden gelding the chance to use his biggest asset to the max over the extended four-and-a-quarter miles off what looks a highly attractive handicap mark of 153.
For a horse rated as high as 171 when second in the 2020 Cheltenham Gold Cup, a race he should have won, this looks an outstanding opportunity for the 10-year-old to finally secure the big prize his talent so richly deserves.
Also runner-up in an RSA Chase, a Many Clouds Chase and in this year’s Cotswold Chase, Santini has also won three of his 13 chase starts securing over £400,000 in prize money and remains relatively lightly raced for a chaser of his age.
Since leaving Nicky Henderson for new handler Polly Gundry, the selection has gradually been building towards 100 per cent fitness and ran well for a long way in this year’s Gold Cup until he was basically outpaced coming down the hill in a race which favoured speed over stamina on the prevailing good ground.
This Liverpool contest represents a much more suitable test of jumping and stamina and I am convinced that a clear round will see him go very close off a lovely racing weight.
Of course in such a big field, luck, as always, will play a huge part in the outcome of this famous race and there are plenty of dangers among his rivals, the biggest of which is probably the Irish raider Enjoy D’Allen.
He comes into this year’s renewal with a very similar profile to last year’s hero Minella Times and his never nearer fifth in the Paddy Power Chase at Christmas was a huge eye-catching performance. If he takes to the hustle and bustle of Aintree, I suspect he will very hard to keep out of the frame.
Thyestes Chase hero, Longhouse Poet, also looks made for this test and a subsequent defeat in the Grade Two Boyne
Hurdle can be safely ignored as it was over two and a half miles on horrible ground. I think that the layers have overreacted to that run by pushing his price out to 20-1.
While likely favourite Any Second Now is respected, his price has come and gone. So if you are looking for other value each-way wagers I couldn’t put you off the likes of Mount Ida, Discorama and the hugely underrated Two For Gold.
The last named has taken his performances to a new level this year and remains unexposed over a marathon trip, while Discorama had a badly interrupted preparation when a cracking seventh 12 months ago and looks sure to improve on that this time around.
But the most intriguing other runner is the mare Mount Ida.
She pulled off a frankly unbelievable winning display in the 2021 Kim Muir at Cheltenham, where she looked all stamina. But for some reason she has been mainly campaigned over two and a half miles this year and to my eyes looked a player for the Gold Cup with her mare’s allowance, but instead she ran in the Mares’ Chase where she was predictably outpaced.
The eight-yearold reminds me a great deal of the 2019 runner-up Magic of Light, who like her former stablemate wasn’t the cleanest of jumpers.
However, she took to the fences brilliantly and had it not been for a slow jump and mistake at the final fence, I think she would have outstayed the mighty Tiger Roll. If she gets into a rhythm here, then Mount Ida she could be the best entry from the Co. Meath trainer.