Local horse may give owner record

OWNER Trevor Hemmings will become the most successful owner in Grand National history if he can win it again this year. The race is on April 6.

Hemmings, successful with Hedgehunter (2005), Ballabriggs ( 2011) and Many Clouds (2015), will be represented i n this year’s race by Lake View Lad, trained by Nick Alexander on the shores of Loch Leven, and the Paul Nicholls-trained Warriors Tale.

Lake View Lad will carry 10st 11lb and Grand Sefton winner Warriors Tale (10st 9lb).

The weights for the National have been announced and Nicholls, also has Black Corton (10st 11lb) and Give Me A Copper (10st 1lb) entered.

One For Arthur ( 10st 10lb) won the race two years ago for Milnathortbased Lucinda Russell but was unable to defend his crown l ast year due to injury.

Other entries with proven form over the National fences include this season’s Becher Chase winner Walk In The Mill (10st) and dual Topham winner Ultragold (10st 3lb).

Tiger Roll will have to defy a 9lb-higher mark if he is to become the first horse since Red Rum to win back-to-back renewals of the race. Gordon Elliott’s charge carried 10st 13lb to victory last year but has been saddled with 11st 1lb.

Tiger Roll only had a head to spare from the Willie Mullins-trained Pleasant Company last year and that rival is off a 7lb-higher mark, with a starting point of 10st llb.

Both Elliott and Mullins are well represented, with The Storyteller (11st 3lb) and General Principle (10st) notable possibles among 22 for Elliott, while his main Irish rival has Rathvinden (10st 10lb) and Up For Review (10st 2lb) on his 10-strong entry sheet.

While clearly unlikely to get all of his entries into the race, Elliott, who also struck in 2007 with Silver Birch, fully intends to run as many as possible in the £1million spectacular.

He said: “I’ll run as many as I can. I’ve won it before and it would be nice to win it again. Basically I’ll run whatever gets in. If I can get 10 to 15 in, I’ll run them all.

“We look forward to it. Obviously it’s a race we target and want to win.

“It will be hard for Tiger Roll. He’s got a lot more weight but we’ll see what happens. Dounikos and General Principle may also run well.”