McCoy hopeful of Cantlow's chances Tony McCoy appears only hopeful as he bids for a second BoyleSports Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse tomorrow. The soon-to-retire champion struck gold aboard Butler's Cabin for Jonjo O'Neill in 2007 and this time partners Cantlow for Paul Webber, one of three runners in the green and gold colours of JP McManus. The 10-year-old was eighth in last year's renewal to current Aintree Grand National favourite Shutthefrontdoor. McCoy said: "It's a process of elimination really. "I thought If In Doubt had a big task with top weight as a novice. He ran OK at Cheltenham but in a 30-runner Irish National we just decided to claim off him to hopefully give him a better chance. "Alderwood has just been very out of sorts all season. " I rode Cantlow at Kempton last time, he choked his head off, we put a tongue-tie on him since and I've ridden him a couple of times at home and I felt like he was better. "He ran OK in the race last year and he's a bit lower in the weights. I thought just at the weights he probably had a better chance than the other two." Webber added: "He ran well there last year under top weight, travelled well to the second-last and probably the weight told then. He's a stone better off, but he probably deserves to be as he hasn't had the most successful of winters. " He looked like running a good race (at Kempton), the ground was a bit drier and we were hopeful. But AP reported he choked terrible on the bend turning into the straight and he couldn't get his air. Whether he swallowed his tongue or not we don't know. "We tried him in a tongue-tie at home and everything has been fine since. Let's hope it was a one-off thing and all we can do is take the precautions of a tongue-tie and hope things don't happen again. "He handles the track, he's run very well right-handed, and the more it dries the better. If it's very testing and heavy I don't think that will help." Webber added of McCoy: "It's a tremendous honour having the man on board and we will all miss him terribly."
