CHELTENHAM’S November meeting is gaining traction. It’s a bit of a mini Festival and increasing numbers of Irish visitors are hopping across the Channel for it. The BetVictor Gold Cup and Greatwood Hurdles are the two features but one of my favourite races is the 3m 3f BetVictor Handicap Chase. This year could see the …[Read More]
by MACIEJ KUREK THERE aren’t many races in the horse racing calendar as well known as The Grand National. Throughout the year, there are some top events, such as Royal Ascot, but it’s The Grand National that appeals to all. This annual event sees everyone, not just horse racing fans, on the edge of their …[Read More]
CARL Llewellyn, assistant trainer to Nigel Twiston-Davies, is hopeful of a good performance from joint-favourite Blaklion (11st 9lb) in the £1-million Randox Health Grand National at Aintree on Saturday. Sixty three entries remain for the world’s greatest and richest chase, staged over four and a quarter miles and 30 fences following Monday’s five-day confirmation stage. Blaklion, the …[Read More]
IT’S still a puzzle why the Grand National weights ceremony is held in London and not in Liverpool. So I afforded myself a quiet chuckle when I heard there was a power cut at the no-expense-spared “do” at the BAFTAs HQ in the West End. Before looking at the weights, those obsessed with finding the …[Read More]
IT’S National season. One For Arthur plundered the Grand National at Aintree, Our Duke sauntered to success in the Irish version and now Scotland is about to have its place in the sun. The 2017 Scottish National market is dominated, not unusually, by novice chasers. Premier Bond is the ante-post favourite following Monday’s latest entry …[Read More]
Pic: Liverpool Echo IT would be truly fitting, 40 years after one of sport’s most seminal moments, if a small northern yard was to triumph in Saturday’s 2017 Grand National. When Red Rum careered away from Churchtown Boy on Aintree’s punishing run-in, it sparked scenes of tumult that have rarely been witnessed since in racing, …[Read More]
ALAN King’s Ziga Boy has been confirmed a definite runner in the £1million Randox Health Grand National. He will bid to become only the fourth ever grey winner of the world’s greatest steeplechase. The eight-year-old made history earlier this season when becoming the first horse to win back-to-back renewals of the Sky Bet Chase at …[Read More]
JONJO O’Neill had a wretched record as a jockey in the Grand National. He never completed the course and the Canal Turn second time round was the furthest he got. Jonjo was particularly unlucky in 1979 when Alverton, who had won the Cheltenham Gold Cup a few weeks earlier, fell fatally at Becher’s Brook when …[Read More]
THIS fallow period between Cheltenham and Aintree always feels like being in no man’s land. The dreams of so many were dashed at Prestbury Park but the 2017 Grand National meeting always offers a chance of redemption and compensation for the vanquished. The Aintree Festival starts on April 6, or two weeks on Thursday. For …[Read More]
by AMELIA ROSE SAINT Are, who finished second to Many Clouds in the 2015 Randox Health Grand National, is all set for his fourth attempt at the world’s greatest race at Aintree on April 8. Run over four miles, two furlongs and 74 yards and 30 fences, the famous chase offers total prize money of …[Read More]
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