Handicapper lumps on the weight for Aintree

Last week"s column was written before the weights for the Aintree Grand National were published, but now that I"ve had a few days to assess them, I can say that the handicapper certainly didn"t do me any favours with the weight he allocated to Afistfullofdollars which will have to shoulder 11-1 successfully around Liverpool if he is to win the race. However, I would consider that War Of Attrition (11-1) is actually the best handicapped horse in the race. There"s no doubt about it, the Irish horses haven"t been treated well, but the exception is War Of Attrition, a former Gold Cup winner which has produced a couple of good runs this season, he is very well in and could be the one to watch out for. You can beat around this topic any way you like, but I"m convinced that it would suit the handicapper if an Irish horse didn"t actually win the race. Our own trainers committee, myself included, had a meeting with the Irish handicapper, Noel O"Brien, two or three weeks ago and he told us that his English counterpart had little or no interest in what he had to say. Noel would have been offering some assistance in relation to assessments of the Irish horses, but Phil Smith (the English handicapper) wasn"t that interested and just made up his own mind about the Irish horses. Apparently, he didn"t take the Irish ratings into consideration at all when he was framing the handicap. Not meaning to harp on about it, but he raises the Irish ratings although he doesn"t do it on a consistent basis and seems to have his own ratings. Whatever your opinion on the matter is, there"s no doubt that the race will attract huge interest. I"m sure 2007 winner Gordon Elliott was happy enough with the weight allocated to Silver Birch (10-6) while my other entry, Mattock Ranger (9-9) is slightly out of the handicap. We"ll just have to see how things develop between now and race day, Saturday, 4th April which is just over six weeks away. Looking back on the last four days, starting from last Friday at Fairyhouse, it was a fairly hectic schedule with Gowran Park on Saturday, Leopardstown on Sunday and Navan on Monday. There was also the launch of the Fairyhouse Easter Festival on Monday evening and then we had the Meath sports personality-of-the-year awards later on Monday night. I"m not sure if I"m able for this pace, but I was absolutely delighted to receive the 'outstanding achievement" award which was conducted through a readers" poll. It"s often suggested that these type of awards don"t mean anything much, but I can assure everyone that"s not the case as far as I"m concerned. It"s always an honour to be recognised on any front and there was stern opposition in my category on Monday night. There couldn"t have been any complaints about the overall winner either, I mean the Olympics only come around every four years and for Meath to be associated with a medal through Darren Sutherland was a great lift for the county. And it was good to see Sean Boylan honoured with induction into the Hall of Fame. Overall, it was an excellent night, made all the better for me by the fact that I took home an award. Navan races on Monday failed to provide any winners, but I have decided that Aitmatov will not go to Cheltenham after his run in the Boyne Hurdle where he finished third to Catch Me. I don"t want to be going to Cheltenham just to make up the numbers and I think that"s what would happen with Aitmatov. Just going to Cheltenham for a run would really empty him out and he just didn"t handle the ground at Navan, he was really tired after the race, but I was impressed with Catch Me, it was a fine performance, it"s the best I"ve seen him and he could make an impact at the Festival. Hotel Hilamar ran a good race to finish second in a grade two novice chase on Monday and he"s entered in the Arkle, we"ll assess him over the next two weeks and make a decision. He jumped great in ground that probably wasn"t to his liking. Cheltenham might be a bit of an ask for him, but it"s still in the pipeline. At Leopardstown, Afistfullofdollars got very tired, they went a very fast gallop. Paul Carberry tried to win the race and that actually cost him third place, if he had sat on him, he would have held on for third, but Paul was trying to make ground on the two in front and was caught on the run-in. He also hit the fourth last very hard and it knocked the stuffing out of him, so overall, I couldn"t complain about the result. I was impressed with Jim Dreaper"s horse, Notre Pere which finished second, the extra distance in the Gold Cup will certainly suit and based on Sunday"s run, he is certainly worthy of taking his place in the starting line up, he was staying on well at Leopardstown and the further they go, the better he will be. Jockeyship, if that"s the right word, won the big hurdle race for Pandorama, I have no doubt about that. Paul"s experience was vital coming down to the last flight, the difference between the professional and amateur jockey was evident. Patrick Mullins is a very good rider and a very good amateur, but you could almost see it before it happened, Paul challenging Patrick on Cousin Vinny, making him stretch for the last hurdle, there was enough pressure to force the mistake, that"s what happened, that"s racing. Cousin Vinny was very impressive, it"s hard to believe that we couldn"t get him off the bridle. Pandorama"s best trip would be about four furlongs further and provided he is okay after the race, Cheltenham is very much on the agenda. Kandari also ran a good race, it was his first handicap and he had plenty of weight, he had to go around the outside and the pace was too slow. He was only beaten by three-parts of a length, I was pleased with the run. I was also happy that Nicanor came through his race at Gowran on Saturday. With hindsight, he would have fared better at Leopardstown on Sunday as the ground was more to his liking. Gowran sticky is how I would describe the going on Saturday, not unlike what you can get at Navan sometimes. Nicanor travelled well to the second last and just got tired. Time is not on his side for Cheltenham, but I"m not ruling it out just yet. Jazz Messenger also came back well, he made a mistake at the second last, it was a typical Jazz Messenger mistake, when he gets in tight he just bunny hops it, the winner met it right and got away from him. He came home really well, although he likes better ground. The Champion Hurdle could be off the radar and Jazz may go to Liverpool instead. Watson Lake could go for the Newlands Chase at Naas next week, if it"s not too soon to run him again. Across The Bay and Chateau D"Eau are in a handicap hurdle at Fairyhouse this Saturday, the weight will determine which, if either of them, runs. Looking forward to the Champion Hurdle, I suppose you could say I have a strong hand with Harchibald, Jered and Muirhead. They are all in good form. Harchibald could go to Dundalk beforehand and will only run at Cheltenham if the ground is good. Jered could handle softer ground, but not heavy while Muirhead will go on whatever ground we get. Jockeys will be the next problem and if I have more than one runner, I will be looking for someone like Denis O"Regan or Davy Russell, they might be available, but it"s not a problem when you have good horses. Visit Moel Meade"s website: www.noelmeade.com