Longsdon hoping Pendra stamina holds out

Charlie Longsdon is well aware that Pendra has a big question to answer when he runs in the Boylesports Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse.

One of six horses declared to carry the colours of top owner JP McManus in the valuable contest, the six-year-old has never raced as far as three miles five furlongs and is only a novice.

A prolific winner for one so lightly raced, Pendra finished a fine third behind Present View at the Cheltenham Festival on his last start, though that was over an extended two and a half miles.

"Obviously with 30 runners in the race, it is going to be a massive ask for a novice like Pendra, but the race has been good to novices in the past," the Chipping Norton trainer told his website.

"The other thing that will also be nerve-wracking is the distance of the race. He has never raced over further than two-miles-five before and on Monday he will be stepping up to three and a half miles. To be fair he is bred to be a staying chaser, it's just that we have not stepped him up until now.

"Going over the trip will have its advantages in that they will surely go a stride slower than he has been to date and therefore it should give him a chance to get into a nice rhythm, and then if he gets into that rhythm it will help him to stay - at Cheltenham he always looked to be going a stride quicker than he looked comfortable with."

The Moores are synonymous with the Irish National. Like his late father Dan, Arthur Moore has both ridden and trained winners of the Bank Holiday feature.

The Naas handler has saddled two winners, Feathered Gale in 1996 and Organisedconfusion in 2011. He tries again with Home Farm, who was third to Liberty Counsel 12 months ago but has not been in the same form of late.

Moore said: "He just disappointed us on his previous run, but he seems fine in himself. We are just hoping he's on form and we're happy enough with him. He came into last year's race on the back of a good win. It would have been nice if he'd been doing that, but we're quite hopeful of a good run."

Amazingly, champion jumps trainer Willie Mullins has yet to get his name on the roll of honour and tries with two runners, Away We Go, Touch The Eden.

He said: "Away We Go's preparation has been very bad, I suppose. We haven't got enough runs into him. He has different little problems. It's going to be tough trying to win a National with the prep he's had, It wouldn't be ideal at all. Touch The Eden has had an ideal prep."

Dessie Hughes struck with Timbera in 2003 and looks to Golden Wonder to give him a second success. "He's in good form. He ran a good race the last day and we're happy with him. The ground should be fine for him," said the Curragh trainer.