Grand National horses from England - South West

Native River is part of the all conquering Colin Tizzard team with this horse recently winning the £113k Hennessy Gold Cup and earning himself quotes for the Gold Cup and the Grand National. Native River won the Hennessy after an exciting first year over fences where he won a Grade Two novice event at Newbury before finishing a staying on second to Minella Rocco in the four mile National Hunt Chase at the Cheltenham Festival. That year was crowned with a clear cut win in the Grade One Mildmay Novices’ Chase at Aintree. That excellent first year over fences meant he went into the ultra competitive Hennessy Gold Cup with a stiff looking mark of 155 but Tizzard worked the training oracle again and the six-year-old ran out a well backed half-length winner of one of the most fiercely contested handicaps of the year. Another bump up the ratings looks inevitable for that big win at Newbury and if Native River does run in the Grand National he is likely to find himself close to the top of the handicap which would be a big ask for such a young horse. Native River would be seven years old come the next Grand National and it is well documented what a poor record horses of that age group have at Aintree so it may be that his connections will decide to give him another year before aiming at the National. Stamina would not appear to be an issue for the son of Indian River given his performance in the National Hunt Chase but his jumping can leave a bit to be desired at times and another year of experience could be the best approach.

Former Cheltenham Gold Cup runner-up Santini has recently been moved to a new stables by his owners Mr and Mrs Kelvin-Hughes. The nine-year-old has left Nicky Henderson and is now back with Polly Gundry where the gelding originally began his career. Overall season plans seem to be fluid given that the gelding’s final run of last season (pulled up in the Gold Cup) was particularly disappointing. However, Gundry is targeting a 3m 2f handicap at Cheltenham in early December as a starting point for this season.

Cloth Cap was rather a slow starter and didn’t record his first win until the sixth race of his career when taking a lowly handicap hurdle at Huntingdon. However, given that he is related to an Irish National winner in Niche Market, his true promise was likely to be only seen once he tackled fences and so it proved with two wins in his first three races over the larger obstacles. Those two victories were also fairly low key (a Class 4 at Stratford and a Class 3 at Catterick) but he then lined up in the Scottish National as a novice and ran an excellent race to finish third beaten just four lengths by Takingrisks. Considering that run at Ayr was just his fourth run over fences, much was then expected of Cloth Cap in the following season but his favoured sound surface was hardly to be found all year long and he suffered four defeats on ground that was much too soft.  This season began with a cobweb blowing outing at Cheltenham behind Frodon and that run obviously put him spot on for his next race. Connections were obviously confident that the best of the horse had yet to be seen as Cloth Cap was sent off the 9/1 fourth favourite for the Ladbroke Trophy, traditionally one of the most competitive handicaps of the season. Trainer Jonjo O’Neill had added first time cheekpieces to the gelding that day and that aid seemed to have the desired effect as the eight-year-old made all under a good ride from Tom Scudamore for an emphatic ten length victory. Given connections of a Grand National winning trainer and a three-time Grand National winning owner in Trevor Hemmings, it was no surprise to hear that Aintree was the new target for their horse after the win at Newbury. Cloth Cap further enhanced his Grand National credentials when bolting up again in his final prep run when taking the Premier Chase at Kelso by seven lengths. Any thoughts that the gelding might be given an easy race that day was quickly dispelled as Tom Scudamore attacked from the front from the drop of the tape. Cloth Cap jumped superbly and underlined the fact that he is considerably ahead of the mark of 148 he has been allotted for the Grand National. Bookmakers swiftly took evasive and cut the gelding to favourite for the big race. Cloth Cap's owner Trevor Hemmings drastically reduced his string of horses at the start of the season so the fact that this horse escaped a trip to the sales should have been seen as a tip in itself.  Given how well Cloth Cap jumped at Newbury and Kelso, he looks likely to be well suited to a test such as the Grand National.