Irish amateurs back for Aintree

IRISH qualified riders will feature on a British racecourse for the first time since the 2020 Cheltenham Festival on Thursday with the Rose Paterson Randox Foxhunters, a race which keeps its traditional name unlike the equivalent at last month’s Cheltenham Festival.

It will be the first time in 24 months that the likes of Jamie Codd, Patrick Mullins, Derek O’Connor and Barry O’Neill will tackle the National fences following the cancellation of last year’s event due to the Covid-19 pandemic and there is a strong Irish representation to uphold the raiding parties honour in what has proven to be a race that they have fared well in of late.

Four of the last six renewals of the two-mile-and-five-furlong race have been claimed by horses who crossed the Irish Sea, with the favourite Burning Ambition denied further Irish success by Top Wood in the last renewal back in 2019.

Following an agonising defeat in the St James’s Place Festival Hunter Case at Cheltenham last month, Billaway is the undoubted standard bearer as he looks to avenge his short-head defeat by Porlock Bay, a rival who will not feature at the Liverpool venue on Thursday.

Patrick Mullins will be back aboard John Turner’s nine-year-old, who is among an initial Irish entry of eight which also includes recent Thurles winner Jury Duty. He is a horse who has an American National success on his CV but did come a cropper in the 2019 Grand National on his sole previous outing over those unique fences.

Christie runner

Road To Riches and Balnaslow have ensured that a Northern Irish-trained horse has finished in the first three in each of the last three renewals, although the latter has subsequently been stripped of his 2018 success, and David Christie will rightly have high hopes of continuing that particular trend courtesy of his Down Royal winner Some Man.

The eight-year-old got the better of Kruzhlinin at Tinahely in November and then bounced back to form with a convincing 12-length success at Down Royal on St. Patrick’s Day over a middle distance which seems to be where he is most effective.

The pick of the home team would seem to be Cat Tiger, owned by Northern Irish-born David Maxwell. A former Grade 3 winner in his native France, the Diamond Boy gelding was an easy winner at Leicester at the beginning of the month on his only outing to date in the point-to-point and hunter chase sphere, and Maxwell has the tricky decision as to which of his hopes he will ride on Thursday as he also has the option of Bob And Co who had been sent off as the second favourite at Cheltenham before parting company with Sean Bowen with three fences to jump.

Caid Du Berlais is certainly familiar to racegoers on this side of the Irish Sea courtesy of winning the last two editions of the Champion Hunter Chase at the Punchestown Festival and he goes into Thursday’s race fresh from winning at Warwick by 44 lengths last Tuesday.

He is now trained by Sam Loxton, husband of the now 12-year-old’s former trainer Rose Loxton who sadly passed away last August.

More immediately for qualified riders, the inaugural John Thomas McNamara series draws to a close on Monday with the sixth and final leg of the series, and Michael O’Sullivan has home advantage on his side at Cork as he bids to become the first name on the special trophy.