Fresh Rose has better chance of delivering National victory

The nine-year-old was yesterday allotted 10st 3lb for the £1m race on April 5 – the same weight that Sue and Harvey Smith’s now retired 
Auroras Encore carried to a famous 66-1 victory last April.

There is every probability that the horse, a Wetherby winner last month under AP McCoy, will make the 40-runner cut – he is 65th in the weights that are headed by the Paul Nicholls-trained veteran Tidal Bay, who has won the last two renewals of the bet365 Hurdle at the West Yorkshire track.

Second in the Hennessy Gold Cup at Leopardstown last Sunday, former champion trainer Paul Nicholls has withdrawn 13-year-old Tidal Bay from the Betfred Cheltenham Gold Cup reckoning so that the horse can be prepared for a tilt at the Aintree marathon.

“I am obviously delighted with his weight again this year, as Phil Smith, the senior handicapper, has given him a realistic winning chance off 161, 7lb lower than his current mark,” said Nicholls.

Tidal Bay’s presence at the top of the handicap on 11st 10lb, just a pound more than the out of sorts 2011 Gold Cup winner Long Run, means there will be some classy contenders with very competitive weights.

Yet the National build-up will be a new experience for O’Meara who is predominantly a Flat trainer and whose ambitious Nawton yard won their first race in Dubai last Thursday when Mont Ras won the Cepsa Mile at Meydan under William Buick.

O’Meara, a journeyman jump jockey who struck up a winning partnership with Tim Easterby’s Turgeonev, never rode in the National, although he did win the 2000 Foxhunters for amateur riders over Aintree’s world-famous fences on the gutsy Bells Life.

“I’ve never had a National horse before so it is all new to me,” O’Meara told the Yorkshire Post. “I don’t suppose there will be many people who have trained a winner in Dubai, and won the National, in the same year.

“He ran a nice race in the Becher Chase and jumped well. I think experience could be important. He won at Wetherby and he won’t have another race before the National – he’s a horse who is best kept fresh.”

Rose Of The Moon is owned by a syndicate of racing enthusiasts and runs in the colours of Middleham Park racing, who are based at Barton-Upon-Humber.

While Tidal Bay has been dropped seven pounds from his official handicap mark to help the race attract more high-profile horses, the Smith-trained Mr Moonshine has been raised by the same amount following his eye-catching win at Warwick last Saturday – he really attacked his fences under Ryan Mania – and will have 10st 12lb to carry.

Ranked 24th in the handicap, he is guaranteed an entry – fitness permitting – but there is still a belief that his best form is over an extended two and a half miles and that Mr Moonshine might be better suited to the shorter Topham Trophy on the day before the National.

However, he is owned by the same team whose colours were carried to victory by Auroras Encore and a second National win remains the dream for Douglas Pryde, Jim Beaumount and David Van Der Hoeven.

Stablemate Vintage Star is 46th in the handicap with 10st 7lb and is virtually certain of a run.

“It is a raceable weight for both horses,” said Sue Smith.

“It was good that the handicapper didn’t put Mr Moonshine up more for his win at Warwick. It’s up to us now to get both horses fit and ready for Aintree.”

Like Mr Moonshine, Malcolm Jefferson’s Cape Tribulation has 10st 12lb and the Malton trainer offered an upbeat assessment of Wetherby’s 2012 Rowland Meyrick Chase winner, who was then a creditable fifth in last season’s Gold Cup.

“That would be a grand weight. It’s getting there. He had a blood blister and we’ve been struggling to get rid of it. It wouldn’t bother us if he didn’t have another run. I think he’d jump those fences all right,” said Jefferson.

It is doubtful that Saltburn handler Keith Reveley’s Night In Milan will make the cut, however. He is 84th after being awarded 9st 13lb.

Inevitably much of the build-up will revolve around former Coral Welsh National winner Monbeg Dude whose owners include Otley-born rugby union star Mike Tindall.

His jumping has been transformed by, among others, Tindall’s wife Zara Phillips and this Saturday’s Grand National Trial at Haydock is likely to reveal whether 10st 9lb – a fraction less than Mr Moonshine and Cape Tribulation – is a fair weight for the Michael Scudamore-trained horse.