Murphy Hoping To Have The Edge

Connections of Joes Edge are hopeful their smart novice will see out the marathon trip in the Gala Casinos Daily Record Scottish Grand National at Ayr tomorrow.

Ferdy Murphy´s eight-year-old put a disappointing Cheltenham Festival effort behind him with a comprehensive victory at Aintree last weekend.

'He did nothing wrong at Aintree and is in with a good weight (10st),' said Murphy´s son and assistant Paul today.

'The ground will be alright for him but the distance is unknown territory, he´s bred to stay but we will just have to wait and see.

'I think that he will get home - whether he will win or not is hard to know but we wouldn´t run him if we didn´t think that he had a chance.

'He has got some good form to his name this season and jumps great.

'He made a blunder at Cheltenham but a lot of horses made a blunder at Cheltenham this year with the fast ground and he was fantastic at Aintree.

'We couldn´t have been happier with his jumping and the way he finished.'

Joes Edge beat the prolific winner Schuh Shine by two and half lengths at Liverpool, having chased home the likes of Control Man, Baron Windrush and Lacdoudal earlier in the season.

And he will have the stable´s promising young conditional Keith Mercer aboard for the first time in tomorrow´s four-mile-one-furlong contest.

'It is the first time that Keith will have ridden him in a race but he is a capable rider and gets horses jumping, so that isn´t a negative at all,' said Murphy jnr.

'Keith has sat on him and schooled him at home and he is a very

straightforward horse.

'We were going to send him to Punchestown but the ground over there is supposed to be riding very fast, which is why we are going to Ayr.

'However, we will go to Ayr and see how he comes out of the race before making any firm decisions about Punchestown.'

? PA Sport