The Midnight Club was hammered from 2/1 this morning into 11/10 for the Grade 2 At The Races Bobbyjo Chase and he delivered in his typical gallop-all-day style to outpoint his Willie Mullins-trained stable companion Arbor Supreme
Paul Townend (completing a Grade 2 double after his success on Little Green always had the Grand National contender The Midnight Club close to the gallop but he had some sweet-travelling rivals behind him when he elected to strike on in the straight. Oscar Time couldn't raise his effort from before the last under Sam Waley-Cohen (slight mistake at the final fence) and he had to settle for third but David Casey managed to get Arbor Supreme on terms after the last. However when it mattered most The Midnight Club pulled out a bit more to prevail by a length.
Mullins said: "I'm happy with both horses. The Midnight Club came on nicely from his Thyestes run and it is nice to see Arbor Supreme come back into a bit of form.
"The Midnight Club probably showed normal improvement from his first run of the season and we're now happy that we're on track with both horses for the Grand National. They are unlikely to run again before that."
Meanwhile Martin Lynch said of his Oscar Time: "He's Aintree bound and we're very happy – he jumped super. That was the first time Sam rode him in public over fences.
"There's still a bit of fine-tuning to be done. He's not the biggest and it was important that Sam got a feel of the scope the horse has to jump.
"We'll see how he comes out of this but I'd imagine he'll head straight to Aintree. That's always been the plan."
