Vanillier to go ONE better

CROMWELL'S 2023 SECOND CAN GAIN REVENGE ON CORACH RAMBLER WHILE MAHLER MISSION, I AM MAXIMUS AND PANDA BOY HAVE A CHANCE

- CHRIS WRIGHT

VANILLIER can go one better than last year and win the Randox Grand National at Aintree Racecourse.

Gavin Cromwell’s nine-year-old grey flew – under jockey and registered pilot Sean Flanagan – late and fast on the run-in at Aintree last year. But Lucinda Russell’s Corach Rambler has already taken the race by the scruff of the neck and landed a two-and-a-quarter-length success to provide his trainer and jockey Derek Fox with a second Grand National victory.

Corach Rambler is back for more and has a favourite’s chance again. But there are reasons to believe that Vanillier can turn the tables on him now. One may be by being ridden a little closer to the pace. He had been in rear for much of the 4m2½f contest and made his move a little later than was ideal – and also later than winner Corach Rambler did.

Although Cromwell’s charge has only won once in 13 starts over fences, he was a Grade One winner over hurdles at the Cheltenham Festival in his younger days.

And he rarely runs a bad race, having unluckily fallen just once during his hurdling and chasing career.

Like last year his season has been campaigned around getting back to Aintree and giving himself the best chance to improve on his first crack at the world’s greatest steeplechase.