TIZZARD MAY FIRE AGAIN AT HAYDOCK

Andy Newton looks at the key clues to the great race.

Grand National interest starts to pick up pace at this time of year, starting with this month’s Haydock Grand National Trial - on Saturday February 15.

Run over a trip of 3m 4 ½f, this Grade Three Chase is a Grand National trial more in name than actually producing the winner of the Mersreyside Marathon. Why? We are yet to see a winner land both races in the same season. The closest we’ve come was when the mighty Red Rum took the Haydock trial in 1975, but could only manage second in the Aintree Grand National that year.

Other notable years were in 1997, when Suny Bay won the Haydock race and went on to finish second at Aintree, while, more recently, in 2017 the David Pipe-trained Vieux Lion Rouge went on to be sixth in the Merseyside Marathon later that season.

Twelve months ago, we saw the Colin Tizzard yard win the prize for the first time with their 10-year-old Robinsfirth, but he didn’t go on to run in the Grand National.

So, even though we are still looking for the first horse to win both races, it’s still a contest that is worth looking back on in a few months when National fever grabs the nation.

What are the main trends to look for? First, ALL of the last 17 winners came from a UK-based yard, but with the Irish not having had many runners in recent years this isn’t really a stat to take too seriously.

On the home front, the 2017 Grand National winning stable of Lucinda Russell is one to note - they’ve had three winners since 2010. While the Venetia Williams team have won two of the last six runnings and you’d feel that now the Colin Tizzard camp have broken their duck in the race they will be firing a few bullets at a repeat win this year.