Perennial placegetter Captains Run picks Grand day to finally come out on top
Billed as a two-horse war between favourite Jesko, who had won the Koral the week before, and West Coast, who was looking for his fourth win
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Otago Daily Times
5 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
West Coast looking for historic fourth National win
Mark Oulaghan is hoping the extreme distance of the 150th Grand National Steeplechase will play into the hands of West Coast, as his champion jumper attempts to rewrite the history books tomorrow at Riccarton Park. The adored 10-year-old has won the last three editions of the National, becoming the second horse to claim three titles since Agent in the 19th century, and the first to do so in successive years. After a top performance to finish second in the Hawke's Bay Steeplechase, West Coast earned himself a fourth trip to the southern course, where he opened his account with a gritty third in last Saturday's Koral Steeplechase, won by hot-favourite Jesko. Oulaghan was pleased with the performance, which was Victorian hoop Willie McCarthy's first steer aboard the son of Mettre En Jeu. "It was a good run," Oulaghan said. "He covered a bit of extra ground and probably got going a little bit earlier than would have been ideal, but at the end of it, he was only six lengths off the winner. We were pretty happy with it. 'Willie quite liked him and he's confident that he can improve on Saturday.' In addition to his National haul, West Coast has two Great Northern Steeplechase crowns on the mantelpiece, so the marathon journey is nothing new. 'I think that's his strong point — once he gets over those longer distances, he just seems to be able to grind it out,' Oulaghan said. West Coast is owned by Twizel racing identity Ron Williamson, his wife, Jennifer, and their son and daughter-in-law, Henry and Gaby. The Williamson family, previously from Birchwood Station in the Ahuriri Valley, have been longtime racing supporters. Both Ron and Jennifer were involved in the centennial celebration of the Grand National, held at Willowbridge, where the first race was held 150 years ago. There is another Williamson connection in John Meyer, originally from Waimate and who once worked at Birchwood, who is a part-owner of West Coast stablemate Berry The Cash. The extra kilometre of the 135th Grand National Hurdles will come to the benefit of Berry The Cash, who ran on late to place in both the Hawke's Bay Hurdles and Sydenham Hurdles. While his older counterpart is shooting for a record four crowns, Berry The Cash will be chasing a threepeat of his own tomorrow in the hurdle, off the back of a tidy effort behind Dictation — who has been scratched for tomorrow with a minor ligament injury — in the Sydenham. 'It was a good run by him under the weight and at the distance, so we're happy with him too,' Oulaghan said. 'He's a grinding type of horse and finishes it off, so the extra distance is suitable for him. There is a bit of rain forecast for down there, which wouldn't worry him, while one or two of the others might not be too keen on it.' While his star pair spend the week in Christchurch, Oulaghan is back at home in Awapuni preparing for a rather different assignment with Jack Morrison. The son of Darci Brahma has racked up six victories from eight attempts on his local synthetic track, and for the first time, will venture further afield to chase the big prize at Cambridge in the $100,000 TAB Polytrack Championship today. — News Desk
NZ Herald
6 days ago
- NZ Herald
Perennial placegetter Captains Run picks Grand day to finally come out on top
Captains Run finally shed his big-race bridesmaid tag in the 150th running of the Racecourse Hotel Grand National Steeplechase at Riccarton on Saturday. Billed as a two-horse war between favourite Jesko, who had won the Koral the week before, and West Coast, who was looking for his fourth win
NZ Herald
7 days ago
- NZ Herald
West Coast trying to join four-peat club in Grand National Steeplechase
The four-peaters are a rare breed. The most recent, obvious adored four-peater was Winx, who won four Cox Plates in a row. Mic drop. Yeats won the prestigious Ascot Gold Cup four times and in harness racing Blacks A Fake won the Inter Dominion four times, but not in a row. There have been five-peaters (now there is a term you really don't hear that often). The great Australian sprinter Manikato won the William Reid Stakes five straight years from 1979 to 1983. Then there is the king of the peats, Koral. The big southerner won the Homeby Steeplechase at Riccarton seven times and finished second another. They got so sick of etching his name on the trophy they simply named the race after him. Which brings us to the $200,000 Racecourse Hotel Grand National Steeplechase at Riccarton today. It is the 150th running of the iconic race, which could have so easily been lost had jumps racing been canned. But today's 5600m is a chance for West Coast to join Winx, Yeats and the Penrith Panthers in the four-peat club. West Coast is a magnificent horse. Big, raw-boned but with a certain nobility in the way he stands. What is notable is the way he has carried 73kg in almost every steeplechase he has contested in the past two years, including his second and third Grand Nationals. There is no doubt he is the most accomplished horse in today's Grand National but eventually something has to give. West Coast is now a 10-year-old and carries 7kg more than favourite Jesko, even though the latter has been our form steeplechaser this winter. West Coast may have carried that same daunting weight to win the last two years but there was no Jesko in those races. To rub salt in the wounds, Jesko has stolen West Coast's regular rider Shaun Fannin, who trains the former and so obviously rides him. West Coast will still be our great racing warrior and he will still do what he always does in the home straight today: continue to go forward. But will he join the four-peaters? That may depend on what toll the step up to 5600m takes on Jesko. He had too much speed and too little weight for Captains Run and West Coast in the Koral (yep, that one) last Saturday and if today's race was over the same 4250m trip Jesko would start $1.30 again. But whether his leg speed burns quite so brightly, after 5000m and with 600m more to go, might decide this race. Earlier in the day, West Coast's stablemate Berry The Cash tries for one of those aforementioned three-peats in the Grand National Hurdles. He faces the same weight issues as West Coast but his arch-rival Dictation has been scratched so history awaits him. Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald's Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world's biggest horse racing carnivals.
