Derham eyes Aintree with impressive Jackie Hobbs

Harry Derham will head to the Grand National Festival at Aintree with his smart mare Jackie Hobbs.

The five-year-old daughter of Jack Hobbs brought winning point-to-point form with her when she arrived at Derham’s Upper Farm Stables and made an immediate impact on her rules debut in a bumper at Ludlow.

She was even more impressive over the weekend at Ascot when she stepped up in grade and galloped clear to win by three lengths from Just A Heartbeat.

Now all roads lead to Aintree and the Grade Two event on the first day of the Grand National meeting, with Derham confident she can run a big race.

Derham said: “It was always the plan to go to Ascot and then Liverpool. She did that very nicely and she’s a well above average mare.

“Noel (Fehily) and David (Crosse, who run the Noel Fehily Racing Syndicate) found her well and she came with a decent reputation. Her point-to-point form reads pretty well and she’s progressing very nicely.

“The mares’ race is at Aintree and not Cheltenham, so that’s where she will be going.

“I think Aintree will suit her well and since I said to Noel and David after Ludlow I would love to take her to Ascot and then on to Aintree, that’s been the plan the whole way along.

“The plan is very much hurdling next season. She’s a point-to-point winner and she’s a good mare.”

Derham is unsure what is next for Brentford Hope after he came home last of the four runners in the Kingwell Hurdle at Wincanton.

Golden Ace got up to beat Burdett Road by three-quarters of a length with Brentford Hope trailing home 17 lengths adrift.

Derham added: “We’ll go back to the drawing board. He just wasn’t good enough on Saturday.

“We might have to go back into handicaps. I said at the start of the season we’d find out if he was a graded horse and he doesn’t look like he is so we’ll either go up in trip, go back into handicaps or school him over fences for next season.

“I don’t really know what we’ll do yet but he still did us proud, he ran well. He just wasn’t good enough.”