SIX of the 17 declared runners for tomorrow's Coral Welsh Grand National are trained in Wales.
Officials at Chepstow were confident that the meeting will go ahead, despite today’s showers. Tomorrow is expected to be dry. Clerk of the course Libby O’Flaherty said earlier this week: “We have missed a lot of the recent heavy rain that has affected some other courses, which is a bit surprising, and the track has coped really well with the jumps meetings this season.
"They will be racing on comparatively fresh ground on both bends and many parts of the course will not have been raced on since the October meeting.”
Christian Williams’ Potters Corner will be the country’s chief flagbearer. He is part-owned by Welsh rugby international Jonathan Davies, so it was fitting that when he won the Midlands National in March it was on the same day that Wales completed the Grand Slam. Davies is sidelined by an injury picked up playing in the World Cup, though if his horse wins, as Williams said, “there won’t be much jumping around from Jonathan with the knee injury!” His Chepstow victory earlier this month was the third time he’s won at the track and local conditional jockey Jack Tudor takes off a handy seven pounds.
Field Exhibition, trained by Grace Harris, was running a career-best at Newbury last Wednesday until a stumble after the last fence unshipped her rider. But for that, they would have been a close second to Magic Of Light, who finished second in this year’s Aintree National. Field Exhibition has improved by two stone on official ratings since joining Grace’s yard, and although she’s never attempted this marathon trip, she did win her only start over three miles and is in top form.
Evan Williams runs three, Pobbles Bay, Prime Venture and Virginia Chick, all of which have low weights and each-way chances. The latter is ridden by his daughter Isabel, who has won on her four times. Richard Patrick, who rode Kerry Lee’s Happy Diva to triumph in the BetVictor Gold Cup a few weeks ago, partners Debra Hamer’s Looks Like Power. Unusually, the Lee stable has no runners in this year’s race.
Of the English runners, the 2018 winner, Elegant Escape, is the favourite. He is the classiest performer in the race. He was sixth in the Gold Cup and a running-on third in the Ladbroke Trophy at Newbury. His jumping isn’t always very fluent, but he has plenty of stamina and is perfectly capable of defying top weight.
The second favourite, Now McGinty, won first time out at Sandown, beating one of Nicky Henderson’s Gold Cup hopes. He had the subsequent Ladbroke Trophy winner De Rasher Counter behind him when he won at Chepstow in January.
Paul Nicholls is confident about Truckers Lodge, despite him having had only three starts over fences. He has won twice at Chepstow, goes on the ground and doesn’t have much weight to carry. Pembrokeshire’s Lorcan Williams takes the ride. Nicholls also saddles Yala Enki, who has already won over a similar distance and will be partnered by Bryony Frost.
The Finale Hurdle, a Grade 1 contest for three-year-olds, has produced some high-class winners in recent years such as Defi Du Seuil. He carried the colours of J P McManus, whose Cerberus, trained by Joseph O’Brien in Ireland, attempts to be top dog this time. Allmankind, unbeaten in two races for the Skeltons, will be hard to beat.
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