Grand National: Irish horses to dominate field for second year running
The steady evolution of the Grand National into a contest dominated by runners from Ireland seems certain to continue in April. As few as a quarter of the runners in the world’s most famous race may arrive at Aintree from British stables.
Ireland supplied a majority of the field for the first time last season, with 21 of the 40 starters and after Tuesday’s publication of the weights to be carried in this year’s race on 15 April, 41 of the top 60, and all but one of the top 10, are Irish-trained.
Martin Greenwood, the senior British Horseracing Authority handicapper who set the National weights for the fifth time, suggested this month that 31 home-trained horses among 85 entries for the race was “a continuation of the demise of the British National Hunt scene and it’s part of a general picture”.
That prompted the trainer Dan Skelton to suggest Greenwood’s remark was “offensive” and that “an official of British racing … shouldn’t be making comments like that”. While Greenwood stepped back a little from his damning assessment at an event in Liverpool to launch the Grand National buildup, he did not back down entirely.
“It was a passionate lament about the entries for the Grand National,” he said. “Demise was a strong word in hindsight and I probably shouldn’t have been so strong. I just want the English challenge to be as healthy as the Irish challenge and probably both sides of the Irish Sea would agree with that.”
Eleven of the top 13 names in the early betting are trained in Ireland, including Noble Yeats, last year’s 50-1 winner, who heads the market at a top price of 11-1 for a repeat success despite being asked to race off a 19lb higher mark.
Martin Brassil’s Longhouse Poet, who jumped brilliantly for much of the way last year before fading in the final half-mile, is a 20-1 shot alongside three more Irish-trained contenders: Ted Walsh’s Any Second Now, second and third in the past two runnings of the National, and the Willie Mullins-trained Gaillard Du Mesnil and Mr Incredible.
The shortest-priced contender from the home team is Lucinda Russell’s Corach Rambler, and Greenwood’s talk of the “English” challenge prompted some muttering on a table where the trainer was accompanied by some of the connections of her 2017 National winner, One For Arthur. He was the first Scottish-trained winner for 38 years and Russell is keen on her chances of a repeat with Corach Rambler, who will creep in at the bottom of the weights on 10st 5lb.
“He’s definitely got the personality andhe’s got the ability, and he’s got a turn of foot,” she said. “The big question is going to be if he takes to the fences. He’s a very intelligent horse and if he doesn’t take to them, we’ll know by the fourth or fifth. They are fair fences now, it’s an honest test and he’s an honest horse to take them on.”