The Irish racing broadcaster examines the big race at Fairyhouse on Easter Monday and picks out a single fancy from the field of 30.
The deluge of rain in recent days has completely changed the picture for this year’s Irish Grand National, with several horses all of a sudden looking major players now that conditions have turned so markedly in their favour.
Gavin Cromwell’s duo Now Is The Hour and Bioluminescence – who was apparently an unlikely runner this time last week – are a couple in particular who will relish the testing ground and must come firmly into calculations but top of my shortlist is another mud-lover in JOHNNYWHO.
This lightly-raced eight year-old will be bidding to give trainer Jonjo O’Neill – who operates in partnership with son AJ these days – a third win in the Easter Monday showpiece and is on a retrieval mission here after an agonising defeat in Cheltenham’s Kim Muir Chase last month.
A well-supported 9/2 favourite there, Johnnywho moved for the vast majority of the 3m2f journey like a horse well ahead of his handicap mark and approaching the final fence it appeared his race to lose. However having been steadied into the obstacle he stumbled slightly on the landing side and was ultimately unable to overhaul the doughty Daily Present, who reopposes here on similar terms. Derek O’Connor will know as well as anyone that it was one that got away but the top amateur now has a great opportunity to banish that memory by capturing the most valuable jumps race in the Irish calendar.
Today’s extra three furlongs shouldn’t be a problem for this stoutly-bred performer – his dam Howaya Pet actually finished an excellent fourth to Numbersixvalverde in the 2005 edition and rounded off her career by scoring over four miles at the following year’s Punchestown Festival – and while a 6lb rise makes life more difficult the list of positives far outweighs that negative.
A typically strong hand for owner JP McManus also includes the veteran Any Second Now, who went so close twelve months ago and warmed up for this with an eye-catching fifth at Naas, while National Hunt Chase hero Haiti Couleurs also merits respect in a highly competitive renewal.
