grand national 2010 / entries /

Royal Rosa & Cerium Get Their Chance
09/04/10

Last minute negotiations this morning between trainers ensured that Cerium and Royal Rosa will take their place in the starting line-up for tomorrow’s John Smith’s Grand National.

In the minutes prior to this morning’s 9am deadline, Gordon Elliott withdrew the first reserve Silver Birch - who will now run in today’s John Smith’s Topham Chase - which allowed Paul Murphy to withdraw Mr Pointment in favour of the second reserve Cerium, which in turn allowed Howard Johnson to withdraw Abbeybraney in favour of the third reserve Royal Rosa.

“It was all done in the last 10 minutes and I’ve got grey lines and look about 70!” said Murphy. “I’ve been talking to Gordon over the past few days and it was down to him that we could do it. We left it to the last minute in case anything else pulled out of the race,” he added.

Cerium, who was fifth in last year’s race, will be ridden by Davy Russell who rang the trainer seeking the ride on the nine-year-old. “It’s hard on Ken [Whelan], who was down to ride Mr Pointment, but Davy is a class rider,” said Murphy.

Like Murphy, Johnson had made it clear all week that, if circumstances provided him with the opportunity he would withdraw Abbeybraney in favour of Royal Rosa.

“We were fortunate to get Royal Rosa in as Abbeybraney didn’t eat a crust last night,” said Johnson, who added that Wilson Renwick would be aboard Royal Rosa.

The official reasons given for withdrawal were: Mr Pointment - vet’s certificate; Abbeybraney - self-certificate, not eaten up.