Freewheelin Dylan lands shock Irish National triumph at 150-1
Grand National week started with a huge shock when Freewheelin Dylan, a 150-1 shot, lived up to his name and made all the running to win the Irish equivalent, the Boylesports Irish Grand National.
Front-running is all about the jumping, and every time the nineyear-old, trained locally by Dermot Mcloughlin and ridden by Ricky Doyle, looked like getting swamped by more fancied horses at Fairyhouse, he would take another length out of the field with his jumping.
Though he was not the most fluent over the last, he was nevertheless quick over it and came home a length and a quarter in front of Run Wild Fred, a 9-1 shot, to become the longest-priced winner of the race since it was first run in 1870. Enjoy D’allen was third and the favourite, Latest Exhibition, fourth.
“It all went to plan,” said Mcloughlin, a rising force in the Irish ranks who trains three miles from Fairyhouse and whose father, Liam, rode Kerforo to victory in the race for Tom Dreaper in 1962.
“I said to Ricky, he likes to bowl along there in front and that jumping’s his forte, so use him up. I was pretty relaxed but I said to the lads turning in [with three to jump] we’d better start shouting because I knew he’d stay going. It’s nice to see a horse enjoy his fences like that.”
Five days ahead of the Randox Grand National at Aintree, Secret Reprieve, the Welsh Grand National winner, still needs three horses above him in the handicap to drop out before he is certain of making the cut for the world’s greatest race.
The maximum field is 40 and the 14-1 shot is 43rd in the handicap. It is touch and go but trainer Evan Williams, set to learn his fate on Thursday at the 48-hour declaration stage, said: “What will be will be. I never sweat over these things.”
Willie Mullins could be looking for a new jockey for second-favourite Burrows Saint. Stable jockey Paul Townend missed the ride on Agusta Gold in yesterday’s Irish race after injuring his foot in a fall. “He’s going to see his doctor midweek before we make any decisions,” Mullins said.