There is a notably strong Irish challenge once again for this year’s Aintree Grand National as the visiting runners as they attempt to win the race for the first time in seven years write BETDAQ’s JOHN SHERIDAN.
Despite such a gap, the Irish record leading up to that last win courtesy of Silver Birch in 2007, had been good with six out of the eight previous winners between 1999 and 2007.
Martin Brassil was one of the Irish trainers with a winner between 99 and 2007, winning with Numbersixvalverde, and Brassil looks to have another live chance with JP McManus’s Double Seven. Currently trading at 28.0, Double Seven looks to be towards the head of the Irish contingent and is one two horses for AP McCoy to choose from, the other being Colbert Station.
Having racked up a winning run of five on the bounce between June and October last year, Double Seven returned at Leopardstown in March to finish sixth behind Pass The Hat in a decent Handicap chase. His winning sequence looks to rock solid having beaten the likes of Give Us A Hand, Wise Oscar and subsequent Cheltenham winner, Spring Heeled.
Brassil’s charge will have to carry at least 10-11 in the four miles, three furlong contest on Saturday, but the ground appears more of a worry to the trainer as he commented on Irishracing.com; ‘’ Hopefully the ground will be good or better. He ran okay the last day. If he ran any worse you’d be disappointed, but it wasn’t a bad run as he had plenty of weight and it wouldn’t be his ground. He took the race well, like he has done all his races, so we’ll see how we go.”
Twelve months ago, Goonyella was the subject of a substantial gamble before the off in the Irish Grand National in Fairyhouse, however, early on in the contest, their fate was sealed as his saddle slipped, forcing Jamie Flynn to pull up quickly.
Goonyella is trained by Jim Dreaper (pictured), son of the legendary trainer of Arkle, Tom Dreaper, and the Aintree Grand National is one of the few big prizes that have eluded the Dreaper family.
After the Irish National, Goonyella went on to tight win at the Punchestown Festival, beating Vesper Bell in a three and a half mile Handicap Chase. He then got touched off in a really good handicap at Galway in October before finishing fifth in the Troytown Chase in Navan.
His run in the Welsh National was probably not as bad as what it says on paper having had to travel almost the entire length on both Ireland and England to get to the race. He finished eighth behind Mountainous in a race where very few got home.
His prep run for the Grand National came over Hurdles at Clonmel finishing just over three lengths behind subsequent Cheltenham winner, Don Poli. Dreaper said: “This is pretty much the only big race over fences my father didn’t manage to win, so it would be nice to do it. Hopefully we’ll be there to give it a go, anyway.”
“We hope to be there, all being well. I would be a little bit concerned if the ground came up good, as it quite often does, as he’s not a quick horse, but he does stay well. He had been jumping a bit slow and deliberate, which is why we switched him back to hurdles the last day in Clonmel.
“Don Poli beat us easily on the day. I was always brought up to judge a horse by what he beats rather than what beats him. Something had to be second, but we were happy with the run and hopefully it will have done him good.”
Goonyella is currently number 41 on the list, so needs just one horse to come out of the race to allow the Dreaper trained horse to run.
Previous Irish Grand National winner, Lion Na Bearnai, is also set to take his chance in the world’s most famous steeplechase on Saturday and will be ridden by Davy Russell.
Although, he has failed to sparkle on several occasions since that Irish National win in 2012, Gibney’s yard was suffering with a virus but he has come back to full health this year with two decent runs at Fairyhouse.
Having won a two and half mile handicap chase on February 1st, he then finished fourth in the Bobbyjo Chase behind On His Own.
Although he was beaten almost 50 lengths that day, Davy Russell asked straight away if he could ride the horse again in Aintree, much to the delight of Gibney; “We’ve got Davy, which is great news. The jockey did pretty well the last time he came to England and he also rode the horse at Fairyhouse in February.”
“He came back this season really well and had a good run over hurdles in Fairyhouse.
“He jumped badly the next day at Navan, which isn’t like him, but I think he was probably remembering the mistakes he made in the Scottish National. He’s a horse who is all about jumping in a rhythm, so we were fairly hopeful he’d run very well if he did that in Fairyhouse and we were delighted to see him win so well.
“He actually ran better than I thought he would until five out in the Bobbyjo. I thought if he was still with them at that stage, he’d come home well, so it was a bit disappointing he didn’t.
“On paper he probably finished where he should have done, but I would have liked to have see him finish off a bit better than he did. He seems in good form since, though, and hopefully we’ll get him to Aintree in top form.”
Of the 65 entries remaining in the Grand National, 14 of them are trained in Ireland, with 9 currently within the permitted 40 runner limit.
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