Lungo has National hopes for Wild Cane Ridge

Lenny Lungo is hoping Wild Cane Ridge can become the first home-trained winner of Saturday’s Coral Scottish Grand National at Ayr for 26 years.

No horse trained in Scotland has been successful since Cockle Strand landed the spoils for Ken Oliver back in 1982.

But Lungo, who hails from Carrutherstown in Dumfriesshire, believes his nine-year-old grey holds solid claims in what will no doubt be a stamina-sapping test.

“He ran OK at Cheltenham but he won a nice race before that over hurdles and we are happy with him,” said Lungo.

“We’ve been preparing him for the race since Cheltenham and at the moment, touch wood, he is very much an intended runner.

“He ran some nice races at Haydock, but it has been difficult for him off a mark of 140-odd.

“He’s a funny horse because if he makes a mistake he tends to make lots of mistakes and loses his confidence but if he jumps well, he jumps well.

“He’s not an easy horse but we’ve been getting him ready, he’s been doing lots of jumping and hopefully he’ll be fine.

“We’ve got 9st 11lb and if the top one (Halcon Genelardais) runs we’ll be 3lb out (of the handicap) but we can’t do anything about it.

“I don’t think he likes horrible, sticky ground but he does go through soft ground well enough.”

Don Forster is hoping to run the lightly-raced Ossmoses after another injury-ravaged campaign.

The Aintree Grand National has been the plan for the last couple of years but a combination of setbacks and missing the cut has seen him denied his chance.

There is no danger of him missing out at the weekend, however, and after a pleasing comeback in a veterans’ race at Newbury, Forster hopes for a big run.

“I was pleased with how he ran last time after nearly a year off, he ran well for a really long way,” said Forster.

“He goes in the ground and he’s guaranteed to stay.

“He’ll be out of the handicap but there is nothing we can do about that now.”

Halcon Genelardais, the horse that forces all bar six of the runners out of the handicap at this stage, continues to be backed by the punters.

He is now 7-1 from 8s and Coral’s David Stevens said: “Punters clearly believe the Gold Cup fourth is capable of carrying top weight to victory on Saturday and having been a 20-1 shot last weekend, Halcon Genelardais could well start as favourite for the big race.”

Coral Scottish Grand National; sponsors bet 6-1 Miko De Beauchene, 7-1 Old Benny, Opera Mundi, Halcon Genelardais, 10-1 Patsy Hall, 11-1 Noir Et Vert, 12-1 Butler’s Cabin, 14-1 Wild Cane Ridge, 16-1 Mon Mome, Ossmoses, 18-1 Openide, 20-1 Kilbeggan Blade, Philson Run, Leading Man, 25-1 Bar.