Tag Archive for: Nassalam

Monday Musings: My Idea of the National Winner is…

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It’s a horrible thought, but if all the horses eligible to run before today’s five-day stage for the Randox Grand National stood their ground and then took up the engagement on Thursday morning, only six of the drastically reduced field this year, from 40 to 34, will be trained in the UK, writes Tony Stafford.

Even more salutary, between them, Gordon Elliott (ten) and Willie Mullins (eight) will have more than a 50% chance of knocking off the £500,000 first prize and the better than acceptable place money from second, £200k, down to five grand for tenth.

The inertia once horses get to a certain level – and this time there’s no fault being found about handicapping on either side of the Irish Sea - means it takes a lot for, say, a 150-rated animal to drop out of his guaranteed place in the line-up from year to year. That’s why they race so infrequently – where else can you have a shot at half a million?

The lucky six this time would be supplemented if the big two fine down their options. Six of the next ten are trained over here so it could at least bring, if not a level playing field, one that offers a hint of promise. Of the guaranteed sextet, connections of the 11-year-old Latenightpass will be on a winner even before the gelding lines up.

Fourth under multiple champion and overall point-to-point lady record holder Gina Andrews in last year’s Foxhunters at the National meeting over the same fences, the gelding will be her first ride in a Grand National. He’s safely in on 24, and Gina, the multiple point-to-point champion and by far the winning-most lady rider in that sphere, rides the family gelding for husband Tom Ellis, king of the point-to-point trainers.

In racecard order as they stood this morning, the top two from the UK are number 3 Nassalam and number 8 Corach Rambler. After his excellent third behind Galopin Des Champs in last month’s Gold Cup, Corach Rambler is only a 4/1 shot to repeat last year’s victory for Lucinda Russell. Nassalam concedes him 2lb because of two spectacular performances around Chepstow in December but was then pulled up in the Gold Cup, so the market’s preference is understandable.

But such was Nassalam’s astonishing demolition job on the Welsh Grand National field in his last race before Cheltenham – unfortunately causing Gary Moore’s gelding that abrupt jump in his rating – he must be a contender especially as we’ll be having heavy ground bar a miracle with the weather by Saturday.

Nassalam also looked good around the big Aintree fences in the autumn, staying on well from a long way back in the Grand Sefton over a woefully inadequate 2m5f, gathering momentum as the race neared its climax. He’s one of the best equipped to handle both ground and distance in the field and although he did carry a big weight in the 3m6f Welsh National, his mark soared another 16lb after that.

I reckon every 1lb will be worth two under these conditions, so with regret I’ve been looking down the list. Sadly, apart from the obvious claims of Corach Rambler – and repeat winners aren’t exactly unheard of - even if the ground might not be totally to his liking, I’ve landed on an Irish contender.

The same age as Nassalam, that’s seven, and significantly the 2022 winner Noble Yeats was also that age at the time, I find it hard to get away from the Gavin Cromwell-trained and, need I say it, J P McManus-owned mare Limerick Lace.

Limerick Lace would be the first of her sex to win the race since 1951 and indeed only three mares, Shannon Lass (James Hackett) in 1902, 1948 Sheila’s Cottage (40/1) trained by Nevile Crump, and Nickel Coin (50/1) for Jack O’Donoghue, won the race in the entire 20th Century. It will take something special to quell that statistic but maybe Limerick Lace is that entity.

She had the effrontery to intrude on Elliott’s second most heinous action as a trainer when he supplied 14 of the 20 runners in Navan’s Troytown Chase in November. Limerick Lace didn’t win the three-miler on heavy ground but got within a couple of lengths of Coko Beach, who did, a fair old run for a 6yo.

She will meet Coko Beach on 2lb better terms, fair enough, and equally being put up 6lb for that was entirely understandable. But she’s run twice and won twice since then, both in the UK. Firstly, she came over to Doncaster for a mares’ chase and bolted up by six lengths with her mark already on the 147 allotted after Navan, and that remained unchanged.

Then she took in the Grade 2 2m5f Mares’ Chase at Cheltenham last month and won it nicely from Willie Mullins’ Dinoblue, who was rated 13lb her superior. Cromwell’s mare did a touch of tail-flashing but showed plenty of resolution and her official mark is now 153, but a bargain 147 for this early closing race only.

In all she has five wins from ten starts over fences with three seconds and a third as back-up. I’m going for a rarity, but one that did happen twice in the first five years of my life – I wasn’t out quite in time for Shannon Lass! Limerick Lace to beat Nassalam and Corach Rambler.

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My copy of Horses in Training finally came on Friday and I’ve enjoyed trying to work out which stable has the most horses, which isn’t as easy as it sounds. Inevitably, we have to guess a bit as two of the biggest strings each year decline sending full lists. The Gosdens have 149 three-year-olds and up but are keeping their two-year-olds a secret while Richard Fahey won’t tell us a thing.

Generally, the boys with more than 200 in their care are the ones that will be challenging for top honours most of the time. But while not yet at that rarified atmosphere numerically, one intriguing name which has a lasting place in Grand National history, is undergoing a re-vamp.

I noticed his list on first skim through but then when wanting to look again, couldn’t find it. The book is in alphabetical order, but Dr Richard Newland and joint licensee Jamie Insole are sandwiched between Tina Jackson and Iain Jardine.

Ten years ago, I backed the doctor’s Grand National winner, Pineau De Re. Now he and Jamie have 100 horses in their care and are obviously going much more seriously at the flat. Last year’s 73 were all older horses. This time, of their 100, 20 are juveniles and all bar one was acquired at the sales, at prices between 16 grand and 110k.

They joined forces late last season, by the end of which they had four wins from their first six runners on the flat. A further four have come at the more sustainable rate of ten per cent this year. The jumpers have provided the partnership with five wins from 77 runs. Until the switch-around, Dr Newland alone had 18 jumps wins from 158 runners.

Insole, 26, is from an Irish family with plenty of NH riding history behind it. He grew up, some might say, curiously in Billericay in deepest Essex but has been involved in the sport for most of his life from adolescence. After jobs with such as Alan King, he went the whole hog into flat racing as a pupil assistant to Charlie Hills.

Of all the stables that have caught my attention, in Grand National week I can’t stop thinking that if someone like the doctor (and his owners) have invested the best part of £1million at the sales to get this embryo partnership under way, they must have the utmost faith in their new recruit. I can’t wait for their first juvenile runner. Royal Ascot maybe?

- TS

New Year Musings: Of Moore’s Grand ‘salam

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They were certainly getting excited after Galopin Des Champs came back to form with a 23-length romp in the Savills Chase at Leopardstown on Thursday, writes Tony Stafford. They reasoned that in beating market rival Gerri Colombe by that margin, he was reasserting his place at the head of the steeplechasing tree. He probably was.

The 2023 Gold Cup winner had been beaten twice since the Cheltenham centrepiece, each time by Fastorslow, at Punchestown in the spring and then on his comeback to action in November. Therefore, he needed to do something to restore his reputation.

Even after those two less than sparkling shows, the surprise to me was that the two horses on Thursday had been as close together in the market on the day as they were, with an official 11lb between them before this encounter.

Galopin Des Champs did indeed power away up the Leopardstown run-in, but just imagine a different scenario, one where Gerri Colombe, rather that Gordon Elliott aiming him at a very likely minimum second prize of €33k (the winner got 70k more), he would have gone elsewhere.

Had Gordon declined this clash, would we have been quite so enamoured of a 23.25 lengths defeat of the 80/1 Willie Mullins field bolsterer Capodanno, who almost denied the Elliott horse that handy runner-up money? Capodanno is rated 20lb inferior to Galopin Des Champs and ran almost exactly to his rating. Nice enough, but it’s easy to take a secondary view, that Gerri Colombe simply did not run to form.

Over the week, there were many good performances either side of the water, with novices over here from such as Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls leading the way. In other words, they were provided by those trainers with the financial owner firepower to challenge the Mullins/Elliott and De Bromhead otherwise open goal into the Irish pointing (and French) marketplaces.

That triumvirate took some collective stopping at home and most of the big level-weight races had the look of, and proved to be, Willie Mullins benefits. Willie’s brother Tony – a good friend for many years – did speak out against the obscene situation in some major handicaps, especially over fences, where multiple entries by a single trainer make success for him in them almost a formality. He was less critical of his brother’s total dominance in the big stuff, though!

The obvious example has been (and no doubt the one that caused Tony’s ire) last month’s 20-runner Troytown Handicap Chase at Navan. Elliott supplied 15 of the runners and duly won it with Coko Beach. That tough grey then showed his credentials for this year’s Grand National with a staying-on second in the 3m2f Becher Chase over the big fences last month.

Another non-winning but significant run over those obstacles had been made a month earlier by a six-year-old, already winner of three chases before that, making his season’s comeback. The son of Dream Well had evaded the, in his case, not so all-seeing eye of Harold Kirk and found his way into the Gary Moore rather than Mullins yard after an encouraging debut second in July 2020 at Clairefontaine, a nice track not far from Paris.

The horse is called Nassalam. He recorded wide-margin hurdle wins as a juvenile on arrival for Moore and now he was noted coming on late into sixth after getting a long way behind in the Grand Sefton over 2m6f.

Next time, early in December, he defied top weight with a convincing success in the Trial for the Coral Welsh Grand National over three miles of the course. Few, though, connected with the Moore yard, including the trainer, and rider Caoilin Quinn, can have expected what was to happen on Wednesday in the Welsh Grand National proper.

I have no hesitation in naming this overwhelmingly emphatic win as the National Hunt performance of the entire year. Nineteen long-distance chasers lined up, as should be the case in a 150 grand race.  Always close to the lead over the twice-round marathon in heavy ground, Nassalam was one of perhaps half a dozen with chances as they left the back straight. Here, Quinn realised to his amazement that his mount was still cantering and didn’t want to disappoint him.

He struck for home, a move that committed what was left of the feasible opposition much earlier than their riders would have wished, and once in the straight, most were taking turns to give up. In a rare show of power and stamina, he drew remorselessly away and, by the finish, had 34 lengths in hand of the strongly fancied Iron Bridge, winner of five of his nine career starts prior to Chepstow. Third, just behind, was Iwilldoit, last year’s winner of the race by nine lengths.

When the owners were interviewed as they waited to accept the prize – never the fairest time to talk to elated connections – they were asked about Aintree, and understandably that would have to be in the thoughts of Gary Moore, with his successful negotiation of the track in the Grand Sefton, but he’ll be going up a minimum of 14lb, maybe more I guess, on top of his 145 on Wednesday.

When Corach Rambler won the race last year for Lucinda Russell, he was off 146, 20lb less than the 2022 winner Noble Yeats, whose victory under Sam Waley-Cohen had also come off 146. That one did extra well considering the rise to be fourth last year. Incidentally, Noble Yeats was beaten at odds-on returning to action for the season in a four-horse conditions hurdle race at Limerick. The system doesn’t lend itself to rewarding extravagance.

Winning the Welsh Grand National, far from indicating an automatic follow-up at Aintree, if history is to be believed, connections might be better served having a good look at the Gold Cup. The chance of the heavy ground that didn’t inhibit Nassalam here is probably unlikely, but you never know.

But the Welsh race has a very decent record in throwing up future Cheltenham Gold Cup winners, and the sort of relentless gallop shown by Nassalam this week is just the requirement for the biggest level-weights test in the calendar. I’d love him to be trained for it. If he doesn’t measure up, there’s time enough to go the big step to Aintree later, if not in 2024.

Just to name a few, Burrough Hill Lad, Master Oats, Synchronised and Native River all completed the double, winning at Cheltenham following victory in Wales.

Gary Moore had an extraordinary day on Wednesday, sweeping up the three biggest prizes for a combined figure approaching £200,000 for his owners. It started with the Finale Juvenile Hurdle at Chepstow, often one of the key races for Triumph Hurdle candidates. Many would have veered away from tackling unbeaten Burdett Road, but the Gredley family’s youngster was a late withdrawal because of the ground by trainer James Owen.

Running away from one star is not in Gary’s DNA. He ran the likewise unbeaten Salver, a gelding that had no flat-race career to call on, unlike the withdrawn theretofore favourite. A comfortable winner of his two previous starts, he ended up the 5/4 favourite and won like one, by 21 lengths.

A brother to Saldier, one of Mullins’ better hurdlers of recent times, he can go a long way and the Triumph is not looking too far off for him now. Messrs Mullins and Elliott would have been taking notes no doubt.

Then, in some ways, the crowning glory for the yard was over at Kempton, in between the two Chepstow cakewalks, when Editeur Du Gite, like Galopin Des Champs the following day, was on a career retrieval mission.

The surprise winner of last year’s Desert Orchid Chase when it was a conditions event, he now lined up under top weight for the newly installed handicap version. As with Quinn on the horses at Chepstow, Moore was happy to rely on Niall Houlihan who could claim 3lb, as was the case with Quinn in the Welsh Grand National.

The latest injury to son Jamie has thrust these two young Irishmen into the spotlight and both have come through with many excellent performances. No searching around for big-name replacements for the Moore stable. Editeur Du Gite went off in his customary place at the front and, though challenged coming to the final bend, at the finish he was well on top.

A day to remember for the stable, but for me Nassalam’s display was one I will cherish for a long time.

Happy New Year to him, and to you all!

 - TS