03-08-2025
Grand National Hurdle: Highland Blaze claims dominant Sandown win
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Iron horse Highland Blaze has finally earned a break after his front-running win in Sunday's Grand National Hurdle at Sandown.
Bairnsdale trainer and part-owner Jackson Pallot sent Highland Blaze to Warrnambool horseman Shane Jackson to be prepared for the Jericho Cup on the flat last year but the gelding has since morphed into one of the state's most promising hurdlers.
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Highland Blaze only had two weeks off in the nine months he had been with Jackson but had won five races on the flat and over hurdles before his Grand National triumph.
'He's been in work for I don't know how long before the Jericho Cup and he had two weeks off after the Jericho Cup but he's done everything we've asked of him,' Jackson said.
'He just gives his all every time he comes to the races.
'It's a great result.'
Jackson said young jockey Jordan Hart's early handling of the six-year-old won Highland Blaze the $250,000 contest.
'He let him be where he was happy and that was the winning of the race because there wasn't much tempo,' Jackson said.
'That was the perfect ride and what a beauty of a horse.'
Jackson won the Grand National Hurdle twice as a jockey but said watching on as a trainer was much more nerve-racking than riding.
The John Leek Jr-trained Affluential finished second, five lengths from the winner while Right Now finished third.
The $2.50 favourite The Cunning Fox was pulled up with 1200m to run, ending the unbeaten run to start his hurdling career.
The Cunning Fox's jockey Tom Ryan said the Patrick and Michelle Payne-trained gelding 'just stopped'.
'He was going but in a couple of strides, he was going backwards,' Ryan said.
'He just stopped.
'I'm sure they'll find something wrong when the vets go over him because that's just not him.'
Originally published as Grand National Hurdle: Highland Blaze claims dominant Sandown win for trainer Shane Jackson
