Grand National Lucky Dip

Any Second Now hails from the Ted Walsh yard, who won the Grand National in 2000 when Ted teamed up with his son Ruby to land the race with Papillon.  In last year's Grand National, Any Second Now was sent off the 15/2 second-favourite and ran really well to finish third, just over eight lengths behind the winner, Minella Times. That doesn't tell the whole story though as Any Second Now made a very bad mistake at the tenth fence where Mark Walsh did really well to stay in the saddle. Things get even worse two fences later when the horse makes a miraculous recovery after looking certain to be brought down. Even though the partnership did well to stay intact, they had lost a lot of ground going from a close-up fifth right back to the sixteenth place at the next fence. Mark Walsh took his time trying to get back into the race, but the partnership are still a distant ninth jumping the third last. The jockey managed to get Any Second Now right back into contention jumping the last, but he has had to use too much energy getting back into the race and finishes a tired third behind Minella Times. It's hard to be certain what would have happened had Any Second Now not nearly fallen at the tenth and nearly been brought down at the twelfth but they certainly can't have helped his chances. Before that race, there had been a question mark as regards the gelding’s stamina for the Grand National as in his previous victory he had shown enough speed to win a Grade Two over the minimum trip of two miles. However, the son of Oscar demonstrated that marathon distances are very much within his range at Aintree, especially as he was badly hampered by a faller at the twelfth fence. The handicapper has raised Any Second Now by seven pounds for his Aintree and he looks certain to be well supported as he tries to go two places better than last year.