According to Pete is on course for Aintree

The 11-year-old winner of Wetherby’s Rowland Meyrick Chase proved that his Boxing Day triumph was no fluke by galloping his opponents to submission in Haydock’s Grade Two Peter Marsh Chase, which was run on rain-sodden ground that was nearly unraceable.

The Malcolm Jefferson-trained bay gelding is 25-1 for the Grand National after pulling remorselessly clear of Henry Daly’s Pearlysteps and the David Pipe-trained Consigliere to prevail by three-and-a-half lengths in a stamina-sapping contest.

“I can’t believe it can be happening,” said Nelson who lives at Helperby, five miles west of Easingwold.

“How did he get the name? He’s by Accordion, I bred him and I’m Pete. What a win.”

As to the future, Jefferson confirmed the staying chaser – a 9-1 chance in a race where 2009 Grand National winner Mon Mome was among those pulled up – will be entered in this year’s Aintree renewal but would not be a definite runner.

The trainer’s previous National runner, Brooklyn Brownie, fell at the second in the race when Mon Mome prevailed.

“One race at a time. I’m over the moon. He’s just an absolutely brilliant horse for the stable – winning good races is what it is all about,” he said.

“Pete bred him but we’ve had him from the off at the stable. You hope they’ll win good races, but you can never be sure. He’s a horse who just enjoys life.”

Another enjoying life is According To Pete’s jockey Harry Haynes – the Rowland Meyrick was his biggest career victory until Saturday’s heroics at Haydock.

“It’s brilliant,” said Malton-based Haynes. “It makes up for the early morning starts and late finishes. I got into an early rhythm and jumped from fence to fence.

“He has not put a foot wrong, although it was very testing out there. He finished very tired, and walked home after the last, but I always felt I had enough.”

The importance of the race to Haynes, a 3lb conditional trying to establish himself in National Hunt racing, was illustrated by the embrace from Malton-born Andrew Tinkler who had been aboard the runner-up. He knows more than most how big races, shown live on Channel Four, can enhance a rider’s career.

It was Tinkler’s third successive second place finish on a day where trainer Donald McCain and jockey Jason Maguire landed a four-timer, headed by Cheltenham Supreme Novices contender Cinders and Ashes, although the Yorkshire rider landed the finale, the Betfair Graduation Steeplechase, on the Sir Robert Ogden-owned Giorgio Quercus.

The winner was Tinkler’s 31st of the season, just four less than the 35 that he accrued in each of the last two campaigns.

Back in the big-time with Victor Chandler Chase winner Somersby, the emotional scenes that greeted Henrietta Knight and Terry Biddlecombe’s triumphant stable star overshadowed one of the biggest wins in the career of Guiseley-born Dominic Elsworth.

While Biddlecombe, the former champion jockey, has been recovering from a stroke, Elsworth was sidelined for 14 months with a career-threatening concussion injury until his comeback in October, 2010.

“I’m delighted for the horse. He’s been a bit of a bridesmaid but he’s done it nicely. I always knew he was going to stay on towards the end,” said the rider.

Second in the Ascot feature to Master Minded a year ago, and placed in a succession of top-class races, Somersby finally realised his potential with Elsworth suggesting that cheek pieces had helped to sharpen up his jumping in this Grade One contest.

Elsworth switched to the inner on the 9-2 chance as the leader Finian’s Rainbow turned for home before inching clear of Barry Geragthy’s mount after the last.

The big question, after this two- mile one-furlong contest, is the intentions of the main protagonists at the Cheltenham Festival.

For third-placed Al Ferof, the Paul Nicholls-trained novice, the Arkle Trophy is the clear target.

For Finian’s Rainbow, it is a close call between the two-mile Queen Mother Champion Chase and the Ryanair Chase over two miles, five furlongs.

For Somersby, however, it is far from clear – he has the class to win a Queen Mother, but back-to-form Knight, recording her first Grade One win in seven years, favours the marginally less prestigious Ryanair.