PROSPECTS LOOK GRAND FOR 2025

Paul Ferguson is excited about the outlook all round in the new year

- Paul Ferguson

Happy New Year. So, what can we look forward to during 2025? For Evertonians like myself, 2025 is a significant year, with the club moving away from Goodison Park and starting life down on the waterfront of the River Mersey, at Bramley Moore Dock.

By the time I am sitting in my seat in the brand new stadium the National Hunt season will be all over, so who can shine in those final four months of the campaign?

IROKO

Oliver Greenall & Josh Guerriero

Sport is a huge part of the culture in Liverpool (keeping up the theme of my home city) and whilst football might be top of the pile, the three-day Grand National fixture has grown into a huge event since the turn of the century, not only in terms of the sport but also from a social perspective. When I first attended the meeting in the mid-90s, it was a nowhere near the event that it is now, despite still attracting highclass horses. 'Ladies Day' is a huge date in the calendar for many in the city lots being once-a-year race-goers - although the Grand National itself remains the highlight, of course.

Whilst I can't boast a particularly strong record in terms of finding the winner of the National, I am quite confident that Iroko will develop into a leading contender in 2025. Trained fairly locally by the upwardly mobile pairing of Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero, the son of Cokoriko - who will be seven by the time you read this (provided it is after 1st January) - handed his Cheshire-based stable with a first Cheltenham Festival success in 2023, when victorious in the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle.