MANY CLOUDS’ AIM IS TO REIGN AGAIN

ADEFENCE of his crown will be a priority for Grand National hero Many Clouds next season, and trainer Oliver Sherwood has also floated the possibility of a rematch with th his Cheltenham Gold Cup conqueror Coneygree in Newbury’s Hennessy Gold Cup.

That race in November has already been identified as a likely target for Coneygree and, even allowing for a rise in his handicap mark, Many Clouds would receive weight from his rival.

With 11st 9lb on his back, Leighton Aspell’s mount carried the biggest weight to victory on Saturday since Red Rum won his second National in 1974 at under 12st.

Sherwood’s desire to return to the National with Many Clouds — the 2014 Hen nessy winner who also came sixth in the Gold Cup — rather than prioritise the Gold Cup, is influenced by the fact that with a weight ceiling of 11st 10lb, the gelding will have to carry only an extra pound.

Sherwood said: ‘He has nothing to lose by going for the Gold Cup as there is no point me protecting his handicap mark over hurdles. But, having said that, and having seen all the novices that Willie Mullins has, we might just train him for the National and if Coneygree goes for the Hennessy, it would be a very interesting option.’

The training centre of Lambourn in Berkshire was packed yesterday to welcome its first winner of the £ 1million Crabbie’s- sponsored race since Jenny Pitman’s Royal Athlete 20 years ago. Among the well-wishers at Sherwood’s Rhone- hurst stable, where 1938 National winner Battleship was trained, were Flat trainers Charlie Hills and Jamie Osborne as well as Sherwood’s brother Simon, best known as one of the jockeys to ride the great Desert Orchid.

Aspell (right), the first to ride back-to-back winners on different horses since the 1950s, having landed the race 12 months ago on Pineau de Re, was in action at Market Rasen, where he was unplaced in one ride, but Many Clouds owner Trevor Hemmings, who also owns the Blackpool Tower and Preston North End, as well as a third Grand National winner that he bought for only €6,000 (£4,350), flew in by helicopter from his Isle Of Man home.

The resurgent Sherwood, eighth as a jockey on Venture To Cognac in Corbiere’s 1983 National, had saddled four previous National runners but none had finished. He joked: ‘My record was s*** — it could only get better.’

Fifth-placed Shutthefrontdoor will also be looking to return to Aintree next year, but not, of course, his jockey AP McCoy. He is expected to return to action at Cheltenham on Wednesday and now has only 11 possible racing days until he retires after Sandown’s seasonal finale meeting on April 25.

One of the most memora- ble sights at Saturday’s race was Ruby Walsh becoming a temporary flag man to help wave the field around the Canal Turn on the second circuit. Balthazar King, who was down on the landing side of that fence, suffered broken ribs and a punctured lung but was showing good signs of recovery yesterday.

Two horses died at the meeting, Warren Greatrex’s Seedling on Saturday and Alan King’s Grade One winner Balder Succes, put down yesterday because of injuries sustained in a fall in Friday’s Melling Chase. But a third National with no fatalities since the fences were given softer cores is proof that welfare changes have made a difference to the track.

That is underlined by the fact that in that time, in all races over the fences, there have been 395 runners and only one horse has suffered fatal injuries as a result of a

fall.