Adrian Heskin is heading for Ayr aiming to kick-off a dream Grand National double.
The cultured jockey can’t wait for two potentially-magical weekends beginning with his trip to Scotland.
Heskin will partner a host of top-class horses over two days at Ayr in his post as retained rider for popular owner Max McNeill.
Among the talented string is the Fergal O’Brien-trained Timeless Beauty, who is owned in partnership with Scottish brothers Patrick and Scott Bryceland.
However, Heskin’s biggest mount is The Wolf in Saturday’s showpiece National with the contest having been on the agenda for a while.
Heskin said: “I’m looking forward to having a runner in the Scottish National and this has been the plan for a while for The Wolf.
“He fits the bill for the race well. He has proven himself to be effective over the marathon trips this year.
“I suppose you could say he is a bit of an enigma as he has plenty of ability, but keeps missing a fence late in his races.
“But he has the ability to win a big handicap like the Scottish National and you would feel his time is going to come at some stage.”
If the Olly Murphy-trained eight-year-old can win, Heskin will then be on for a famous National double as he’s due to partner Aintree favourite Escaria Ten for Gordon Elliott seven days later on Merseyside.
He continued: “Escaria Ten has the right profile for the race. This has been his target and there are few better than training one for a target than Gordon.
“It’s a race that takes a bit of luck, but with a bit of that on our side, we could run a big race.
“I should be riding Senior Citizen as well in the Topham and, hopefully, he’ll put in another good show again because he really likes Aintree.”
First, though, it’s Ayr and, no matter how the horses go, it’s going to be a big week for the team with McNeill’s brother Hugh getting married to partner Carole in Ayrshire on Thursday before the squad hit the racecourse 24 hours later.
Heskin, who savoured a few holiday days break in Millport at the end of last season after the National meeting, is a level-headed character and not one for getting ahead of himself or over the top about big opportunities.
However, he does admit it’s an exciting time for the team as he said: “It’s a big couple of days. We’d be happy to see a bit of rain before racing and we can run some nice horses.
“Most of the time, we’ve been fortunate enough to have some luck when we have travelled horses up to Scotland or the north of England.
“Unfortunately, we drew a blank at the meeting last year, but, hopefully, we can rectify it this time around.
“Ayr is a fantastic racecourse and I can’t wait to get back up there.
“I’m fairly level and try not to get over-excited about things. But it is nice to have good horses to approach these meetings.
“You spend all year trying to find horses good enough to get to these big spring Festivals and we look to have chances in some of the big races of the calendar year, so you have to look forward to that and myself and the whole team are, starting with Ayr.”
