The winners just keep flooding in

A LEGEND in Irish racing circles, Francis Flood has won all the big prizes – except one. Declan Colley discovers that he aims to put that right.

Francis Flood has been around the block a few times in racing, but few men have shown the sort of resilience and enthusiasm to keep a top-line career as a National Hunt trainer going in the same way he has.

Some might say that the ageless Wicklow handler is in the twilight of a glittering career, but Flood himself doesn’t look at it that way and while he has already experienced almost every high imaginable during his life as a trainer, he’s still plotting further successes and today at Haydock, his highly rated chaser GVA Ireland takes on a hot-pot field in the Red Square Vodka Gold Cup Chase, but this is only a precursor to ultimate aim of a crack at the Grand National at Aintree on April 14 next.