National Weights Reactions GREY ABBEY 11st 12lb Trainer Howard Johnson: “If Grey Abbey doesn´t run in the Cheltenham Gold Cup he might go. It just depends on the ground with Grey Abbey - the softer the better.” VALLEY HENRY 11st 4lb Trainer Howard Johnson: “He´s ready for a run and in good order. I always thought he´d be a National horse because he´s really a two-and-a-half-mile horse - that´s his best trip - and if you drop him in and if the top comes off them (fences) it might make him more enthusiastic. Once you got the first circuit out of the way and he got into a rhythm I think it might rekindle a horse like him.” BATMAN SENORA 11st 2lb Trainer Ian Williams: “It´s probably high enough and I´ll have to have a discussion with the owners but he´s got enough weight there at this stage of the game.” COLONEL FRANK 10st 12lb Trainer Brendan Powell: “That´s a nice weight. We´ll have to see what happens when he goes to Wincanton on Saturday week. He is quite inexperienced over fences but he jumps well. We put him in and it´s a nice weight that a horse could win a National off. He is a great jumper. He´s in great form. I´ve just done a piece of work on him and he´s in cracking order I couldn´t be happier with him. He´s put on a lot of weight after his break but he´ll be fit and ready Saturday week.” NIL DESPERANDUM 10st 8lb Trainer Frances Crowley: “That´s quite a nice weight. The trip would be right for him but you could argue he´d be a bit young for it this year. It´s certainly a consideration at the moment but he´s in the Red Square Vodka Gold Cup at Haydock so we´ll see how he goes there first.” TIMBERA 10st 8lb Trainer Dessie Hughes: “That´s lovely. I´d be happy with that - that´s great. He´s in good form. He was late coming back in and then he got a bit of mucus in him which slowed things up a bit - that´s what kept him out the race last year - hopefully he´s over it now and we can carry on. His target is the National and he´ll have two runs before wherever we can find a conditions chase. He likes goodish ground. He won the Irish National on goodish ground. He´s won on heavy but his best run was the Irish National. He ran well (second) at Cheltenham in the four-miler on quick ground. Conor O´Dwyer could ride if he didn´t have a better ride.” JAKARI 10st 7lb Trainer Henry Daly: “I just entered him and we´ll see what we think as we go along. It looks as though he´d get a run if we wanted to. There is a possibility he could go for the Topham or he might run in the National. It would really depend very much on the ground. He does not want soft ground. We´ll see how we go between now and then. I´d have liked 10st but you might not get in on 10st. Running him is at the back of my mind at the moment.” JOLY BEY 10st 7lb Trainer Nick Gifford: “That´s a lovely weight. I´m happy with that and at the moment the National is the aim - definitely. We are going to stick him in at Cheltenham in a couple of races. We missed Cheltenham last year just to wait for Aintree and it all went wrong. We may or may not go to Cheltenham but certainly the Grand National is the main aim.” LORD NOELIE 10st 7lb Trainer Bridget Nicholls: “I think that´s a nice weight. We will have to see how he goes between now and then before we decide whether to go for it. We are keeping an open mind. He´s been a bit disappointing his last couple of runs but we´ve given him a break and plan to run him next month. It is a nice weight though.” FRENCHMAN´S CREEK 10st 6lb Trainer Hughie Morrison: “That´s about what we thought we would get. We are rated about 28lb below Grey Abbey so that seems about right. Anything below 10st 12lb is a lovely racing weight for the National and we would be likely to get in as we´re 49th. The horse is in great form and he will probably have a run on the first day of the Festival, depending on the ground.” COLNEL RAYBURN 10st 4lb Trainer Paul Nolan: “I would be delighted to get on a run on that weight - I would just love to get in and he would have a good chance. His next couple of runs will be based around the Grand National now and he could well run in the Red Mills Chase at Gowran on Saturday as it looks like being a small field. We´ll give him a break of five or six weeks before the National to just freshen him up.” JUST IN DEBT 10st 4lb Trainer Martin Todhunter: “I thought about 10st 2lb to 10st 4lb. I´m quite pleased with the weight and hopefully Tony Dobbin will ride it. His preparation has gone very well. He´s had a break, he was away at the stud for three or four weeks after his last run. He came back looking very well and he´s in strong work now and he might run at the end of the month or early March and that would be it - straight to Aintree.” SPOT THEDIFFERENCE 10st 4lb Trainer Enda Bolger: “We would have to be pleased enough with that as we will probably get a run. He ran well last year to be fifth but his target will be the cross country race at Cheltenham first. We will see how he goes there but that weight would encourage me to run.” A PIECE OF CAKE 10st 2lb Trainer Jim Goldie: “That´s quite a handy weight if we get in. The plan is to aim him at the race. He runs on Saturday and we´ll know more after that. He won the Borders National a couple of years ago so he´s obviously a decent horse. At 12 years old he´s not in the right age bracket but he´s got low mileage and he´d go to the National a fresh horse. We´ll see how we go but there´s a possibility he could go in the Borders National again.” SUPREME GLORY 10st 1lb Trainer Pat Murphy: “The weight would give us an outstanding chance and I´d have to be delighted with that but my first concern would have to be whether he will get into the race. Phil Smith seems to treat the National handicap differently to other races and it´s great that he encourages the good horses to run, but it makes it difficult for horses around the 130-mark to get in the race. I´d be chuffed to bits if we could get a run on that though and the plan is to go for the Eider at Newcastle then straight to the National.” BATHWICK ANNIE 10st Trainer Paul Keane: “It would be very tempting to run her off that kind of weight but obviously she might not get. We put her in the Grand National on the basis that if she continued to improve and the ground turned up soft at Aintree, we would be kicking ourselves if she wasn´t even in the race. The only worry would be that going left-handed she tends to jump to the right but we will put that to the test in the Red Square race at Haydock a week on Saturday.” ARTIC JACK 9st 13lb Trainer Sue Smith: “It would be lovely if we could get in on 10st. It´s a strong possibility that we would aim him at the race. You can´t not be happy with that weight for once and if they went up a couple of pounds that would be better. If he gets in there on 10st 1lb, 10st 2lb or 10st 3lb it would be an ideal weight for a big horse like him.” KYMANDJEN 9st 11lb Trainer Paul Nolan: “I don´t think he will get in on that kind of weight so we will aim him for the Irish Grand National instead.” (c) Press Association
