Grand National Lucky Dip

Iwiildoit must go down as one of the most impressive recent winners of the Welsh National after the gelding spreadeagled the field at Chepstow for an easy nine-length victory. The manner of Iwilldoit’s victory was even more impressive when you consider he was two pounds out of the handicap and that he was badly hampered at the start of the race. The Sam Thomas trained gelding was introduced into the Grand National betting immediately after his win at Chepstow and is likely to be challenging for favouritism at Aintree. The handicapper has raised Iwilldoit an understandable nine pounds for the Welsh National win and that rise comes on the back of a ten-pound increase for his earlier victory in the Welsh National trial at the beginning of December. Trainer Thomas was understandably thrilled by his charge’s big win, and he declared that he had been concerned before the race as ideally, he would have liked to have given Iwilldoit more time between races than the 23 days he had in between his two Chepstow wins. Apparently the nine-year-old gelding received kid glove treatment at home in the days between the two races in an effort to give the horse every chance and the light training certainly seemed to do the trick. Cardiff based Thomas also suggested he wasn’t sure if his horse was tough enough for the Welsh National as he isn’t the biggest horse in training and very slight. Obviously, the gelding turned out to be brave enough for Chepstow but does his small stature mean that Aintree might cause him some problems? With regards to the stamina needed for Aintree, Iwilldoit has raced over four miles once before at Kelso last season where he finished over fifty lengths behind the winner that day. We probably shouldn’t take too much notice of that run as that was only the horse’s second run over fences and his jockey reported that he jumped badly. The extra experience Iwilldoit has gained since then as his jumping in his two victories this season has been exemplary. Welsh National winners have had a lean time of it recently at Aintree and we have to go back to 2004 and Silver Birch to find a horse who won at Chepstow before going on to win the Grand National as well, although there was a three-year gap between Silver Birch’s two big wins. Ground conditions will also likely play a part in Iwilldoit’s chance at Aintree as the son of Flying Legend does seem to enjoy soft ground. He does have a couple of wins on good to soft (including the Welsh National trial), but it seems that softer ground would be where he would produce his best form. Soft ground doesn’t materialise that often for Aintree so anyone fancying an ante post wager on Iwilldoit may be best advertised to wait till nearer the actual race.