Ted Walsh expressed his shock after Any Second Now was handed the joint top weight for this year's Grand National.
The 11-year-old was allocated 11st 12lb by BHA Chase Handicapper Martin Greenwood, with the weights being unveiled at a lunch in Liverpool on Tuesday afternoon.
Walsh said he was “absolutely shocked” that Any Second Now was given joint top weight for the National, a race which he finished second in last year.
READ MORE: Live updates as Grand National weights are released
Despite the allocation of 11st 12lb he will bid to go one better than he did last year, when finishing two and a quarter lengths behind winner Noble Yeats. Since then the 11-year-old has finished second in a 2m 3f hurdle contest at Punchestown on New Year’s eve and fourth in the Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup at Leopardstown earlier this month.
After learning the weight his JP McManus-owned gelding has been allotted, Walsh said: “All I can say is that I know he’s not Red Rum, I know he’s not a Crisp and he’s not a L’Escargot, so make your own mind up
“I’m absolutely shocked that he has top weight. He goes there in as good form as he did last year. He is in as good nick as he was last year but he’s got top weight so make your own mind up. I think he’d have to be an exceptional horse to win it with top weight.”
After finishing fourth and 15 lengths behind Galopin Des Champs in the Irish Gold Cup at the Dublin Racing Festival, Walsh dismissed the idea that the run would have any effect on his weight for Aintree.
The trainer said at the time: “He ran OK. I expected him to run as well as he ran – he ran to his rating.
“Look at the horses around him. He is a 162-rated horse. The horse that was third (Fury Road) was 158, the runner-up (Stattler) was 163, so he ran OK. He didn’t do anything I didn’t expect him to do.”
He added: “The handicapper won’t do anything. The weight he has, he has. He is 162.
“The English handicapper might think he is a better horse around Liverpool and give him 2lb more, he might say he’s 11 years of age, so give him 2lb less, but that is all you are going to be talking about – a pound or two here or there. It is what it is.
“He’s in good nick and he’s happy. If he ran any worse than that, you’d be disappointed.
“The run was all right. I wasn’t coming away from Leopardstown squealing, but I wasn’t disappointed.
“I’d have been delighted altogether had he split the winner and the second. I’m a realist. I’m not an optimist or a pessimist – I’ve been at the game far too long for that.”
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