Two Festival winners among entries for Scottish National
Two Cheltenham winners are among the entries for the Coral Scottish Grand National at Ayr on Saturday April 17.
The Sue Smith-trained Vintage Clouds, winner of the Ultima Chase and National Hunt Chase winner Galvin, trained in Ireland by Ian Ferguson, will be lining up.
Last year’s winner Takingrisks from the Nicky Richards yard is also among the 64 entries as is Denise Foster’s Escaria Ten who finished third behind Galvin and Aye Right, trained in the Borders by Harriet Graham, who was third in the Ultima Chase.
Another Scottish trained horse likely to line up in the £150,000 race is Dingo Dollar who won at Newcastle earlier this month on his first start for Sandy Thomson having been formerly trained by Alan King.
Paul Nicholls, who has saddled three winners of the race, holds four entries with Yala Enki, Truckers Lodge, Highland Hunter and Soldier Of Love while the aforementioned Alan King who saddled Godsmejudge to win in 2013 has entered Talkischeap, Canelo and Notachance.
The two highest rated entries are Bristol de Mai, trained by Nigel Twiston-davies and
Cloth Cap from the Jonjo O’neill yard - currently favourite for the Randox Grand National at Aintree.
Sponsors Coral have installed the Irish trained pair Galvin and Escaria Ten as 8-1 joint favourites, while they offer Vintage Clouds at 14-1.
Meanwhile, Musselburgh ends its winter jumps season on a high on tomorrow with a £140,000 fixture as part of the
Racing Post Go North Weekend festival.
The East Lothian course, along with Kelso and Carlisle, are participants in a £400,000 three-day festival which hosts seven finals for horses which have qualified at prior National Hunt meetings.
Musselburgh is hosting four of the seven finals with a £30,000 prize fund for each race, two of which are over 2m 1f and the others over 2m 4f and three miles.
Bill Farnsworth, Musselburgh Racecourse general manager, said: “The Go North Weekend is a fitting finale for the jumps season, which celebrates the owners and trainers largely based in the north, who have supported us through the winter season.
“With seven finals each with £30,000 prize money over the three racecourses, there promises to be some first rate contests over the three days.
“By creating this festival in the north, it gives our homebased owners and trainers a fantastic target to aim for at the end of what has been a challenging season.”