Repeat offenders for your short list
OLD TIMERS will say that the Aintree Grand National is not as tough as it used to be.
The famous fences – which have been regularly modified over the years to make the course safer for all participants – are certainly less formidable than they once were.
What hasn’t changed is that the National fences – and the prospect of jumping them in the heat of battle alongside 39 fellow contenders – present a unique challenge.
Which might explain why the same names seem to come back year after year to run well.
Red Rum’s record in the race has yet to be beaten. He’s the only horse to have won the feature three times, and he finished runner-up on his other two visits.
Manifesto (1895-1903) actually topped Rummy’s overall record with six placings in the race including two wins.
As for near-misses, The Pilgarlic was perennially unlucky but always gave punters a run for their money.
Starting with a second in the Topham Chase (one lap rather than two of the course), he ran in the next four Nationals with form figures of 4543, his best finish coming in 1980.
Three of this weekend’s runners – Blaklion, The Last Samuri and Saint Are (twice) – have been placed in the first four before. Seventeen more have Grand National experience (see panel above). Meanwhile, Blaklion, who ® was perhaps ridden a little too aggressively when tieing up from the Elbow to finish fourth last year, added to his status with a romping win in December’s Becher Chase.
That race acts as one of the best trials for the showpiece as all the bigrace fences have to be jumped at least once and the distance is just a mile shorter than Saturday’s 4m2f.
Ridden with more restraint, Blaklion came through in the closing stages to win impressively.
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The David Pipe-trained Vieux Lion Rouge is arguably at his physical peak at the age of nine and yet he has already posted four sure-footed runs over the Liverpool fences – including that Becher victory in 2016.
And his prep race at Ascot in February was by some distance his best run of the current campaign.
Pipe also has ‘previous, as he won the race quite early in his training career in 2008 with Comply Or Die, matching the feat of his father Martin who had won the valuable prize 14 years earlier with Freddie Starr’s Miinnehoma.