The roar of the crowd as the tapes go up at the start of the Coral Scottish Grand National at 3.35pm on Saturday will reverberate around Ayr Racecourse – signalling the return of spectators to Scotland’s greatest jumps race for two years.
The outbreak of Covid-19 and subsequent lockdown saw the 2020 race cancelled and last year Mighty Thunder stormed home with the stands virtually empty as the meeting was held behind closed doors with only some owners allowed entry.
But around 15,000 avid racegeoers will flock to the track on Saturday for the latest running of the £150,000 contest and I reckon we are in for a race to be proud of.
A total of 31 horses stood their ground at the latest entry stage on Monday and these include six Irish-trained raiders plus runners from the stables of Nigel Twiston-Davies, Paul Nicholls, Alan King, Dan Skelton Olly Murphy and Evan Williams.
But the trainer I think will be celebrating on Saturday afternoon is Ian Williams whose base at Alvechurch in the West Midlands is a 624-mile round trip from Ayr Racecourse as he brings a horse back to the scene of an emphatic win at the festival last year.
One More Fleurie absolutely hosed up in the CPMS Novices’ champion handicap chase that day, making all and passing the line six-and-a-half lengths clear of Mac Tottie with the third home a further five lengths in arrears.
Since that day last April, the eight year-old has not progressed as connections thought he would.
Firstly, he flopped last October in the London Gold Cup at Ascot then he was pulled up in the Ladbrokes Trophy at Haydock the following month.
He was given four-month break before running in the Ultima Chase at Cheltenham earlier this month where he was 17th of 24.
But don’t let that latest run put you off. I spoke to his owner Keith McKenna who lives in Wolverhampton but is a proud Scot and he is certain he will have his old sparkle back at Ayr on Saturday.
If his jockey Charlie Todd adopts the same tactics as he did in 2021, and has the run of the race, he should be hard to peg back.
And the good news is that One More Fleurie is at massive odds of 33-1 with sponsors Coral and should easily outrun this price.
Of the more fancied runners, Vale of Glamorgan trainer Christian Williams has the first and second favourites Kitty’s Light (5-1), who was second in the Ladbrokes Trophy at Kempton in February, and Eider Chase winner Win My Wings an 8-1 chance.
The big news at Monday’s entry stage were the scratchings of Lucinda Russell’s three horses – Ultima winner Corach Rambler, who will now head to Sandown in late April; last year’s winner Mighty Thunder, who will line up at Aintree on April 9; and Big River, who ran at Kelso on Saturday.
Scotland’s best chance could lie with Sandy Thomson’s The Ferry Master – fourth in the race last year and quoted at 10-1.
I think he will be a threat to my pick but I’ll stick with One More Fleurie to beat The Ferry Master.
Elsewhere over the two days, I like the look of Donald McCain’s Presentandcounting in the Hillhouse Quarry handicap chase on Friday and the Paul Nicholls runner Hacker des Places in the Coral Scottish champion hurdle.
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