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Gavin Cromwell could have as many as seven runners in the Boylesports Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse but he appears to have his bases covered however the ground turns up on April 21.
While Velvet Elvis and Bioluminescence need the current dry spell to end, the likes of Now Is The Hour, Yeah Man, Malina Girl, Final Orders and Noble Birth are all a bit more versatile.
“We’re happy with them anyway. The ground is going to dictate a good bit. Some will prefer the better ground and some will want a good ease in it,” said Cromwell.
“Velvet Elvis is very ground dependent. We’ve also got Bioluminescence in there who would want proper soft ground, but she does have the option of the Grade One over two and a half miles, the (WillowWarm) Gold Cup. I’m not sure if she’s well handicapped and she gets a mares’ allowance in the Grade One, she loves soft ground though.”
He went on: “The others wouldn’t be as dependent. Now Is The Hour would definitely want a little ease but it wouldn’t have to be good and it wouldn’t have to be proper soft.
“If you go back a couple of runs he was a very well-handicapped horse but now he’s not, without winning a race. He went up 10lb for running well in a beginners’ chase. We needed to run well to qualify for the National Hunt Chase at Cheltenham.
“Then he fell at the second-last in that when he was still going well and he went up 5lb for his fall. He was well handicapped but now he’s up 15lb, so it remains to be seen if he can win off that, but he’s in good form. At least it means he gets in.
“Malina Girl is pretty versatile, she wouldn’t want it knee deep but we’re not going to get that anyway. She seems in really good form, she ran really well in Cheltenham and has come out of it well. We’ve had great luck with the owners, they also have Only By Night who was second in the Arkle.”
Lower down the weights are Yeah Man, Final Orders and Noble Birth.
Cromwell said: “Yeah Man won the Grand National Trial at Haydock last year and he’s gone up plenty in the weights for that. I think he’s suited to the National, he ran OK in the Kim Muir but the ground was probably on the better side for him at Cheltenham, he would have appreciated a bit more of an ease but three-five will be a big help.
“Final Orders is a very versatile horse, he ran a cracker in the Ulster National when he just found one better handicapped. He went up 5lb for being second there but he won’t carry that penalty in the Irish National, so effectively he’s 5lb well-in. It’s a quick enough turnaround.
“If Noble Birth gets in, it has been the plan to run here for a while. If he does get in, he’s in off a nice weight and he seems in great form.
“I’ve never had much luck in the race, I’m one of the few locals who hasn’t won it or even gone close, so hopefully we can.”
While it would be churlish to say Cromwell left Cheltenham disappointed having won the Gold Cup with Inothewayurthinkin, he had several placed horses and he felt Sixandahalf was one that got away in the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle.
She was caught close home and is now due to take part in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Honeysuckle Mares Novice Hurdle on April 20.
“We won our first Grade One with Jer’s Girl in 2016 in this. She seems to have come out of Cheltenham well, we hope she can bounce back. I thought she was home and hosed at Cheltenham and she just got mugged on the line,” he said.
“She seems fine, you never know if they are over their races until you try, as we saw at Aintree, but this is an extra couple of weeks.”
It has been Cromwell’s best season of his career by some margin, but he admits that brings its own problems.
“I suppose we started out the year with a target of winning €1 million in prize-money and as we get near the end, €2 million is the target, but it’s not the be-all and end-all,” he said.
“We’ve had a brilliant season, best season ever, but that doesn’t mean we won’t keep trying our best until the end. The problem with raising the bar all the time is you have to up the game again the following year.”
