Horse Racing

NORTH Yorkshire trainer Bryan Smart expects a strong display from Alfa McGuire when the talented colt attempts to preserve his unbeaten record at Beverley today.

KILBRICKEN Storm is out to prove his 33-1 Cheltenham Festival success was no “fluke” in the Irish Daily Mirror Novice Hurdle at Punchestown today.

CONNECTIONS of Finian’s Oscar are confident he will have no problem getting the trip in the Growise Champion Novice Chase on day one of the Punchestown festival.

SUE and Harvey Smith have been synonymous with staying steeplechasers for nearly three decades.

TO LUCINDA and Peter Atkinson, Irish Roe is more than a racehorse.

KEVIN RYAN will carefully plot Brando’s big race targets after the sprinter won back-to-back renewals of Newmarket’s Abernant Stakes on his seasonal bow.

SUE SMITH’S Vintage Clouds will be joined by stablemate 
Straidnahana in tomorrow’s 
Coral Scottish Grand National at Ayr.

KARL BURKE says stable star Laurens is on track for the Qipco 1000 Guineas after pleasing connections in a racecourse gallop.

NIGEL Hawke insists he has no regrets about selling Randox Health Grand National winner Tiger Roll five years ago.

OWNER Jean Bishop has paid tribute to her horse of a lifetime after multiple Grade One-winning steeplechaser Cue card was retired.

CONNECTIONS of Sue Smith’s Vintage Clouds are hoping for swift compensation after the staying chaser controversially failed to make the cut for the Grand National.

DANNY Cook has been admonished by Grand National stewards – for helping direct horses around Becher’s Brook on the second circuit of the world-famous race.

DAVY RUSSELL and Tiger Roll were made for each other – the oldest jockey in the Randox Health Grand National winning the world’s greatest steeplechase on the smallest horse after the race of their lives.

Tiger Roll and Davy Russell held on to claim a dramatic victory in the Randox Health Grand National at Aintree.

IT Is Sue Smith’s mobile office for the morning. She is sitting in a motorised Tuk Tuk on open moorland, protected from the elements, as her Grand National runners I Just Know and Delusionofgrandeur stride up the rain-sodden gallops.

HENRY Brooke hopes the positives will outweigh the negatives on Grand National outsider Delusionofgrandeur after Sue and Harvey Smith’s runner became the last to make the 40-runner field.

NIGEL Twiston-Davies hopes patience will be rewarded for Blaklion when he runs in the Randox Health Grand National at Aintree today.

AS heavier than expected going disrupts last-minute Grand National preparations, jockey David Bass admits to having few grounds for concern.

KATIE Walsh, Bryony Frost and Rachael Blackmore all line up in the Randox Health Grand National – but the prize on offer to them at Aintree is greater than the £500,000 winner’s cheque.