House flops but remains on National course
But trainer Ginger McCain was far from despondent and the 2005 renewal of the Aintree spectacular is still firmly on the agenda.
The 12-year-old was in the rear in the early stages but was never really able to make any significant progress and came under pressure approaching the last on the far side.
He gradually weakened to come home about 50 lengths adrift of the 10-1 winner, Accepting.
His mud-splattered partner Graham Lee said with a wry smile as he returned to the weighing-room: “He gave me a good feel but got tired - and those hurdles are too small for him!”
McCain added: “Graham said ‘how ever did the horse win a National, he never jumped a hurdle today, he was just stepping at them’ - he was right, I would have liked to have seen him finish closer, but it does not matter, it was a step down the road.
“He has never been a hurdler really and you might remember he was pulled up here before (two races before) the National last season, he was fit enough today and he has not blown unduly, but I think we will have to give him a run over fences, irrespective of weight, before the Becher Chase (at Aintree), possibly over two and a half miles at Wetherby.”
McCain went on: “At his age he ‘makes his own arrangements’ but we needed to get a run into him and want him 100 per cent for the Becher next month, and for the National, those are the two main targets again.”
Accepting, trained by John Mackie, got home with a short head to spare over Native Ivy, but the winning jockey Paul Moloney was suspended for one day (November 1) for careless riding, the stewards deciding that he had allowed his mount to drift left without ‘sufficient correction’.
But they also decided the subsequent interference to Native Ivy had not improved Accepting’s placing.
McCain could also be represented in the Aintree National by Ebony Light, who beat all but George Moore’s Jungle Jinks in the RHT 40th Anniversary Handicap Chase, although his main objective before the New Year is the Welsh National at Chepstow.
Jungle Jinks (4-1) ran out a convincing three-and-a-half-length winner in the hands of Barry Keniry to set up a clash with Amberleigh House in the Becher.
Moore, who went on to complete a double with Beamish Prince in the conditional jockeys’ event, said: “The Becher Chase is the objective, but we have not thought about the National yet.”
McCain and Lee had earlier been on the mark when Calomeria made a successful debut in the Manson Insurance Group Juvenile Novices Hurdle.
