Having gone over a century and a half without an Irish-trained winner, Saturday’s Scottish Grand National could see a horse from this country emerge on top for a third year in a row in the Ayr feature.
Macdermott in 2024 and Captain Cody last year proved instrumental in Willie Mullins’ successful pursuit of back-to-back British trainers’ championships.
Dan Skelton is too far clear this season for Mullins to pull off a hat-trick in that contest, although a different kind of one is still possible as the Irish man left Road To Home among 25 entries for Saturday’s latest National prize at Monday’s acceptance stage. Road To Home is one of five potential Irish contenders.
Mullins is fresh from I Am Maximus completing a three-in-a-row for his all-conquering trainer in Saturday’s Aintree National. His nephew, Emmet Mullins, successful a week ago with Solider In Milan in the Irish National at Fairyhouse, has left J’Arrive De L’Est in the Ayr contest.
READ MORE
Gordon Elliott’s Duffle Coat is still in the mix, as is Promontory, while Kim Roque looks on course to try to change Joseph O’Brien’s National luck.
A sense of lost opportunity revolved around O’Brien’s Jordans, who ran a remarkable race to be third to I Am Maximus at the weekend.
Jockey Ben Jones admitted to making his move in the race much too soon with Jordans shooting clear of the National field after the third last fence. That he ultimately was beaten less than four lengths smacked of a colossal effort.
“Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I would probably have held on to him a little bit longer. He’s still a young horse and hopefully he can have another crack next year,” said Jones, who was riding Jordans for the first time.
O’Brien has indicated that Ayr is an option for Kim Roque, who is owned by Scotsman Ronnie Bartlett. Kim Roque has run just four times for the Irish trainer and last time was fourth to Ask Brewster in the Kim Muir at Cheltenham. Road To Home was runner-up in the same race. Ask Brewster is also a potential starter on Saturday.
The impact of a third National prize in just a dozen days meant plenty of defections on Monday, with the result that the Mags Mullins-trained Blaze The Way is topweight. Bookmakers have made the locally trained King Of Answers favourite, although Kim Roque is next best at 8-1.
Perhaps the biggest National Hunt star of all will be in action on Saturday, although Constitution Hill’s task will be on the flat again when lining up in a Newbury Group Three, best known as the John Porter Stakes.
Winner of two all-weather starts after the plug was pulled on his hurdling career, Constitution Hill’s future could largely be determined by how he fares in a mile-and-a-half contest against some well-established names.
Given an official flat rating of 101 after his two wins at Southwell and Kempton, the Nicky Henderson star now faces the prospect of taking horses such as the 116-rated Convergent and another popular nine-year-old in Al Aasy, winner of the John Porter all of five years ago.
“Constitution Hill is a superstar of a horse, but like Al Aasy, he’s also nine years old. Everyone is expecting, and there’s so much on his shoulders. I admire him enormously; and I hope he runs a really good race against these better horses,” said Angus Gold, spokesman for Al Aasy’s ownership.
The latest classic trials will also take place at Newbury on Saturday and Aidan O’Brien has left open the option of running Albert Einstein in the Greenham Stakes. The colt, acclaimed by his trainer as the fastest ever through his hands, failed to fire in his first start of the season at the Curragh.
