Big Fella & Skippers on course for National Big Fella Thanks and Skippers Brig were the big movers in the John Smith's Grand National market on Saturday afternoon. All eyes were on the well-fancied Ballabriggs up at Kelso, the Donald McCain-trained horse sure to replace The Midnight Club as ante-post favourite for Aintree with an impressive performance. However, he had to play second fiddle to Skippers Brig at the Scottish track, with bookies electing to keep Ballabriggs at a general 14/1 following his defeat. Nicky Richards' horse halved in price to 25/1 from 50s with totesport and William Hill, while Sky Bet went 33s from 50s. Lucy Rhodes, spokeswoman for William Hill, said: "A fine performance from Skippers Brig to nail National fancy Ballabriggs and launch himself into the Aintree betting, however we've left McCain's charge unchanged at 14s behind 12/1 favourite The Midnight Club." Over at Newbury Big Fella Thanks ran on well to grab fourth place in the Greatwood Gold Cup and Victor Chandler reacted by cutting him to 12/1 from 16s for the National. He remains a best-price 16s generally. Niche Market ran eighth in the same race and he was left unchanged at 16s by the layers. Character Building was cut to 33/1 from 40s generally after running an eyecatching third in the Grimthorpe Chase at Doncaster.
