Santini's victory was a remarkable fifth Grade One success for Nicky Henderson at the 2018 Randox Health Grand National Festival. 

 

It follows We Have A Dream's Doom Bar Anniversary 4-Y-O Juvenile Novices' Hurdle win, Might Bite's success in the Betway Bowl, L'Ami Serge's Betway Aintree Hurdle triumph and Terrefort's Betway Mildmay Novices' Chase win.

 

Santini, the 6/4 favourite, was ridden by Nico de Boinville, and the pair beat the Dan Skelton-trained mare Roksana (Harry Skelton) by one and a half lengths.

 

Henderson said: "He was enjoying himself out there. He's a brave horse - a lovely big baby of a horse, and a chaser for next year. He ran such a good race at Cheltenham [third in the Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle] that we thought we ought to put him away, but temptation comes in. Richard [Kelvin-Hughes, who bred and owns him] was keen to go, and he's been really fresh and well at home. He has said all along, 'I'm up for this again', and, bless him, he's only a big baby but it was a great performance.

 

"He's home-bred too by Richard and Lizzie Kelvin-Hughes, and I trained the mare [Tinagoodnight] as well, and I know it is actually their first Gradfe One winner out of all the home-breds they have had, which is lovely. He's a gorgeous horse. And so is OK Corral, who ran a very good race but just sort of flattened out. It was probably a bridge too far for him today - it is for a lot of them, to be fair."

 

Asked to put his five Grade One wins at this meeting into context, Henderson said: "Obviously a lot of very, very good horses; you can't go without them. But I have to say, everybody's worked their socks off. It's a long four weeks from Cheltenham, nearly all of them have been there, and everyone's done brilliantly to get them here. That's been the secret of it, really. But you have to have good horses."

J J Slevin, rider of third-placed Tower Bridge, said: "Tower Bridge has run a cracker. He travelled and jumped well and it was lovely to get a ride on a horse like that. He did us really proud."