past winners

grand national 2006 /

Hedgehunter At Aintree On Wednesday
04/04/06

John Smith's Grand National runners start arriving at Aintree on Wednesday.

Hedgehunter
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Hedgehunter, winner of last year’s John Smith’s Grand National, is scheduled to arrive at Aintree on Wednesday. The horse is due to leave Willie Mullins’ stable at County Carlow in the early morning and travel across by boat. Hedgehunter is currently vying with Jonjo O’Neil’s Clan Royal for favouritism in Saturday’s £700,000 event.

Numbersixvalverde will also be setting out for Aintree from County Kildare tomorrow with trainer Martin Brassil hoping to catch the 4pm boat which would bring them into Aintree later in the evening.

Ned Mitchell too is leaving his Kilmallock stables in County Limerick on Wednesday with the well-fancied Garvivonnian, though the journey could be an eventful one. "The horse has to be boxed on his own. There’d be nothing left of the horsebox if we put another one in with him," said Mitchell. The horsebox will be driven by Garvivonnian’s owner John Long.

Ted Walsh, who won the Grand National with Papillon, will not bring Rince Ri and Jack High over from his stables at Kill, near Naas, until Thursday.

Francois Doumen will stable his two runners (Innox and First Gold) at nearby Haydock Park, and they are set to arrive from his French base on Thursday.

Cornish Rebel
© racing-images.co.uk

Most of the English contingent will not arrive at the racecourse till later in the week, with trainers like Paul Nicholls (Royal Auclair, Cornish Rebel, Le Roi Miguel, Eurotrek, Silver Birch, Le Duc and Heros Collonges) and Nicky Henderson (Juveigneur and Iris Royal) bringing their big-race contenders to Aintree on Friday.

Jonjo O’Neill (Clan Royal, Risk Accessor and maybe Knife Edge) and Martin Pipe (Therealbandit, It Takes Time, Whispered Secret, Puntal and Iznogoud) will not stay overnight, sending their horses up on the day.

For this year’s Aintree meeting, the stable manager Derek Thompson has 190 boxes at his disposal and between now and the John Smith’s Grand National on Saturday Thompson expects to be working all hours. "There’s always an empty box, though, if I do need a quick nap," he said.