Gordon Elliott bids to win Grand National for fourth time

Irish trainer Gordon Elliott will bid to win the Grand National for the fourth time when a 40-strong field faces the starter at Aintree on Saturday. The race is off at 6.15pm (SA time).

Two of Elliott’s runners, Delta Work and Coko Beach, have been well-supported in the antepost market for a stable that captured this famous race in 2018 and 2019 with Tiger Roll.

Now a 10-year-old, Delta Work ran third behind Noble Yeats last year so has proved he handles the stiff Aintree fences.

The support for Delta Work came after last month’s Cheltenham meeting where the gelding won the Cross Country Chase in fine style beating his stablemate Galvin by two lengths.

Regular rider Jack Kennedy missed Cheltenham with a broken leg and faces a race against time to get fit for Aintree. Keith Donoghue is on standby as his possible replacement.

Delta Work’s stablemate Coko Beach backed in from 33-1 to 20-1, is strong backup for Elliot and impressed many pundits when running out a five-length winner of the Grand National Trial at Punchestown in February.

The eight-year-old finished eighth in last year’s National and — as he was one of the youngest in the field — will have benefited from the experience.

Noble Yeats was a 50-1 winner last year when he had a handicap mark of 147, but races off 166 this time. He won the Many Clouds Chase at Aintree in December and was noted finishing well into fourth place in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March.

In the last 10 years, only two chasers, Tiger Roll and Many Clouds, have won the race from a weight in the 11st range. The last horse to win with 11st 11lb was Freebooter in 1950.

As only two horses — legendary Red Rum and Tiger Roll — have registered consecutive wins since World War 2, trainer Emmet Mullins is well aware of the task facing jockey Sean Bowen who replaces the retired Sam Waley-Cohen.

Interviewed by the Racing Post, Mullins said: “Noble Yeats seems to have come out of the Gold Cup well. He’s getting a bit wiser every time and seems to look after himself a bit more these days. Tiger Roll won his second national with 11st 5lb and we are trying to come back with 11st 11lb so everything is going to be a bit harder.”

Betfair report support for Joe Tizzard’s runner, The Big Breakaway, whose price has been trimmed from 40-1 to 25-1. He ran second in the Welsh Grand National but disappointed in last month’s Ultima Chase at Cheltenham.

Paddy Power have shortened The Big Breakaway from 66-1 to 33-1 and — though he was receiving a stone in weight — boasts a win over Delta Work. Trainer Martin Keithley is optimistic his charge will stay the marathon trip.