Irish Grand National on My Murphy’s radar
A faller in the race last year and a close second to Foxrock in a Grade 2 novice event over course and distance last time, the tough eight-year-old, in the colours of Hans Joeng Zindel, originally from Lichtenstein but now resident in Lismore, County Waterford, recovered from a mistake at the fourth last fence and stayed on dourly in the closing stages to beat More Madness by a length and a half.
Burke explained: “He was very fresh here the last day but, today, he was never travelling and was off the bridle all the way. He seemed to labour down the back in the tacky ground, but kept going well. He won’t jump properly when he’s covered up, among horses — that’s why Robbie kept him wide, to give him light at his fences. Robbie knows him well and gave him a great ride — that’s the way you have to ride the horse.”
