Meath horses aiming for Aintree success

Seven Meath horses are amongst the 123 entries for the Aintree Grand National which will take place at the famous Liverpool track on Saturday, 4th April. The weights for the four and a half miles £900,000 contest will be unveiled next Tuesday, 10th February with most attention likely to focus on last year"s Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Denman. The last horse to complete a Gold Cup and Grand National double was back in 1975 when Tommy Carberry partnered L"Escargot to victory after the big gelding had won the Gold Cup in 19070 and 1971. Local trainers Noel Meade, Tony Martin and Gordon Elliott each have two entries and Jim Dreaper, who trains at Kilsallaghan near Ashbourne has also entered his Welsh Grand national winner Notre Pere in the marathon event which annually captures a huge television audience. Dreaper maintained that he would not run Notre Pere in the Aintree race after he won at Chepstow in December as he was too young. 'He"s an out and out stayer at the early stage of a learning curve and I wouldn"t be too keen to go to Aintree just yet,' stated Dreaper in the winners" enclosure at the Welsh track. However, Andrew Lynch gave Notre Pere a fantastic ride that day and the duo could team up again for the Liverpool race. Irish-trained horses have won six of the last 10 races and 2007 winner Silver Birch has been aimed at the event. Trainer Gordon Elliott also has Hoopy entered in the race. Hoopy won at Cheltenham last November when amateur rider Jason McKeown controversially 'borrowed" a whip from another rider. Silver Birch was due to return to action at the North Tipperary point-to-point at Nenagh on Saturday, but that was postponed due to the poor weather conditions and will now take place next Saturday, 7th February. Silver Birch hasn"t raced since he won the Aintree race in April 2007 due to a leg injuryand his comeback will be eagerly awaited next weekend. Meade has the 11-year-old Afistfullofdollars and Mattock Ranger, which disappointed in the Thyestes Chase last month, entered. 'The going at Gowran was very tough and Mattock Ranger just downed tools completely, he wouldn"t go, but then a lot of other horses didn"t show up too prominently either,' stated Meade in last week"s racing column in the Meath Chronicle about the nine-year-old Oscar gelding which has won twice over fences and pulled-up in three of his last four races. Martin has Dun Doire and Patsy Hall entered and will be watching the weights to assess his chances. Members of the Dunderry Racing Syndicate which includes Kevin Dowd, Barry Callaghan and Damien Clarke will be hoping that Dun Doire is allocated a favourable weight. The 10-year-old ran in the 2007 race under 10-8, but was pulled up after halfway by Paul Carberry.