Paul Nicholls has never won the John Smith’s Grand National but his The Minack is beginning to enter calculations for this season’s renewal after another impressive winning performance at Ascot on Saturday catapulted him into the mix for the ‘world’s greatest steeplechase’ at Aintree in April, writes Elliot Slater.
Come the day of the big race Nicholls could potentially have a plethora of runners in the four-and-a-half-mile marathon contest, but The Minack appears to tick most of the boxes at this stage as potentially a leading candidate for the champion trainer having handed out a six-length beating to Vino Griego (received 15lbs) in the listed GL Events Owen Brown Silver Cup Handicap Chase at the Berkshire track under a confident ride from Ruby Walsh. People following the Grand National odds should bear this in mind.
Running off a 9lb higher mark than his winning rating at Wincanton in the Badger Ales Handicap Chase last month (where he held off the useful Meanus Dandy by half-a-length), punters made the seven-year-old an 11/4 joint-favourite to follow up and were proved spot on as The Minack took up the running at the second from home and then stayed on strongly to defeat the Gary Moore-trained runner-up with something to spare.
Stamina is definitely a strong suit for the son of King’s Theatre and Nicholls had been seriously thinking about letting him take his chance in the Coral Welsh National at Chepstow on December 27. After much thought the Ditcheat handler has decided against sending his progressive performer to tackle the bog-like conditions at the South Wales track and will instead look to tailor his preparation around a potential crack at the Aintree spectacular in April for which bookmakers now make the up-and-coming gelding a best priced 40/1 shot, although some firms are already erring on the side of caution offering just 25/1 about a Grand National win for The Minack.
