A trainer has made a shrewd move to book Rachael Blackmore to ride one of his best horses at Aintree.
Alan Jones, who trains just 12 thoroughbreds, sends Lady Excalibur to the Grand National meeting this week. The mare has won two of her three races, including her most recent start at the Liverpool venue in October.
Jones has kept her ticking over at his small set-up in Timberscombe, Somerset, in preparation for a Grade 2 event on Thursday. Lady Excalibur races for the £28,135 first prize in the Goffs UK Nickel Coin Mares' Standard Open National Hunt Flat Race. And Jones, who has had 19 runners in the 2021-22 National Hunt season, expects his runner to gel with Blackmore.
"She’s a small mare and being a quiet, sympathetic rider, I think Rachael will suit her really well. She’s a top rider," he told the Racing Post. “I rate Lady Excalibur very highly and she should be unbeaten really, it was just a slightly false-run race at Uttoxeter that didn’t play to her strengths – she’s a staying mare bred for the Flat and the race turned into a sprint.”
Lady Excalibur, a €100,000 yearling purchase, was in training with Richard Hannon as a younger horse. However since moving to Jones' stable, she has flourished ahead of her stiffest task to date at the prestigious fixture.
Blackmore made headlines in 2021 when she became the first female jockey to ride the winner of the Grand National. "I don't feel male or female right now. I don't even feel human," she said afterwards.
The 32-year-old had a dream run around the famous course with spruce fences on the Henry de Bromhead-trained chaser. In the colours of JP McManus, the eight-year-old made steady headway from the 19th fence and led narrowly on the home turn. On the lengthy run to the line, he was able to increase the distance between himself and stablemate Balko Des Flos.
Minella Times and Blackmore were six-and-a-half lengths clear at the finish, giving de Bromhead another major one-two just weeks after the same result in the Gold Cup. His horses again dominated in the Cheltenham Festival feature this year, with Blackmore's mount A Plus Tard overturning the form with Minella Indo from the previous 12 months.
Minella Times moved up to top weight in the Grand National yesterday at the latest confirmation stage. He will race with 11st 10lb, after being allotted 10st 3lb ahead of his victory last year. Bookmakers Betfred are offering odds of 14-1 that the chaser can follow up – and carry the biggest weight since Red Rum shouldered 12st to win in 1974.
