Hot To Trot: Grand National special

Anthony Honeyball

A virus struck Anthony Honeyball’s Dorset yard earlier in the season but his string is clearly in much better health now. The trainer had no runners at the Cheltenham Festival but sent out seven horses on the Saturday after the Gold Cup. That resulted in a double at Fontwell from the mares Shapiro and Duhallow Gesture, both of them ridden by the stable’s conditional jockey Rex Dingle. Meanwhile, three of the stable’s four runners at Uttoxeter were placed, notably Ms Parfois, who finished a gallant second to the more lightly-weighted Potters Corner in the Midlands Grand National. That signalled a return to form for the mare who had disappointed in the Ladbrokes Trophy at Newbury on her only previous start this term. A three-week gap between Uttoxeter and Aintree is on the short side, but the likeable Ms Parfois has stamina in abundance as she had already proven at the 2018 Cheltenham Festival when running this year’s leading Grand National hope Rathvinden to half a length in the National Hunt Chase.

Honeyball has another National contender in Regal Encore who will form part of owner J P McManus’s team for the race. Regal Encore has already contested a Grand National, finishing eighth behind One For Arthur two years ago when making late headway. He was a late withdrawal from last year’s race and has had a light preparation this time, finishing third at Ascot on his last start in February in a race he had won twelve months earlier.

Sue Smith

Sue Smith enjoyed a flying start to the year with seven winners in January and another six in February, but while March has yielded only three successes to date, the stable’s overall form remains good. They fired just one bullet at Cheltenham but went close to hitting the target with 16/1-shot Vintage Clouds in the Ultima Handicap Chase. Making his first start since pulling up in the Welsh Grand National, after which he had undergone wind surgery, the front-running grey ran an excellent trial for the Grand National, rallying to go down by just a length and a quarter to Beware The Bear. Vintage Clouds, who shares his sire Cloudings with his owner Trevor Hemmings’ most recent Grand National winner Many Clouds, showed he stays four miles, seeing the trip out thoroughly too, when a fine third in last season’s Scottish Grand National.

ICYMI: @CookDannyJockey speaking to @RacingTV about Vintage Clouds yesterday... pic.twitter.com/RRKvqHHRNU

— Aintree Racecourse (@AintreeRaces) 28 March 2019

Sue Smith is already a Grand National-winning trainer, successful with 66/1 outsider Auroras Encore in 2013 who had also been placed in the Scottish version twelve months earlier. Vintage Clouds will be a much shorter price, though like last year when narrowly denied a place in the line-up, he still needs a few above him in the weights to drop out to be guaranteed a run from down the bottom of the handicap – he’ll be 5 lb well in having been put up that amount for his big run at Cheltenham.

Philip Hobbs

Few trainers have their string in better form at the moment than Philip Hobbs. Since Defi du Seuil gained the second Cheltenham Festival success of his career in the JLT Novices’ Chase, Hobbs has fired in another eleven winners at the time of writing, including Gumball who won on the Flat at Lingfield. Defi du Seuil, previously winner of the Scilly Isles at Sandown, will also be among the stable’s Aintree team as he bids to complete a hat-trick of Grade 1 novice chases in the Manifesto Novices’ Chase, the opening race on the first day of the meeting.

Hobbs has gone close in the Grand National itself on a couple of occasions with What’s Up Boys in 2002 and Balthazar King in 2014. That pair of runners-up also provided champion jockey Richard Johnson with his best placings from twenty attempts in the race. Hobbs and Johnson will be represented in this year’s Grand National by Rock The Kasbah whose good record fresh means he purposely hasn’t been seen out since December. Rock The Kasbah ended last term finishing second to fellow Grand National hopeful Step Back in the bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown and put in a fine round of jumping to win a competitive Grade 3 staying handicap at Cheltenham’s November meeting.