National changes get thumbs up as Coleman banned

Now the less welcome; the whip debate returned centre-stage after Aidan Coleman was banned for seven days and forced to forfeit his prize money after Stewarts House won the Grand Sefton Chase.

Coleman hit the Tim Vaughan-trained winner 11 times – three more than the prescribed limit – as he fended off Paul Carberry’s relentless challenge on Irish raider Linnel, who had blundered at the last in this two-mile, six-furlong contest.

In testing conditions, the circumstances of Coleman’s career first victory over the National course suggest the British Horseracing Authority will come under pressure to further relax the whip rules before the world’s greatest steeplechase in April.

“What are you doing to me?” the BHA’s director of regulation, Jamie Stier, said to Coleman as the triumphant jockey returned to the winner’s enclosure on the Welsh raider, a potential National contender in the making.

That said, Coleman was magnanimous and praised the fence changes after coming to grief earlier at the modified Becher’s Brook in the Becher Chase – a major National trial won by Alan King’s West End Rocker, who is now 16-1 ante-post favourite for next April’s marathon.

That race changed at Becher’s when Coleman’s well-placed mount Abbeybraney hit the fence hard while Saltburn jockey James Reveley parted company from Shalimar Fromentro.

That left last year’s winner Hello Bud clear before unseating teenage jockey Sam Twiston-Davies two fences later at the Canal Turn; the veteran gave the rider little chance.

As the rain-softened conditions took their toll, Wayne Hutchinson nursed West End Rocker into the race, eventually pulling clear of former Irish National winner Niche Market.

Although the winner is unlikely to enjoy favourably soft conditions in the National, that did not dampen his pilot’s spirits.

“I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it – what good fun he was. He was absolutely awesome and gave me a great feel all the way round,” said Hutchinson.

Asked about the modified fences, Hutchinson added: “You could definitely tell the fence that will be the first in the Grand National had been levelled out a bit. There’s still a big drop on Becher’s Brook, but racing over those fences is what it is all about.”

That view was echoed by Coleman in spite of his mixed day at a course where he has suffered considerable ill-fortune.

He missed the 2009 National-winning ride on Mon Mome when preferring the merits of seventh fence faller Stan.

The former champion apprentice said: “I think they’ve done a good job. They’ve not taken away from the character of the race and that is important. Changes had to be made but I hope that is it now, you have to keep the character. It still takes some jumping.”

Julian Thick, Aintree’s managing director, said the feedback over the new take-off boards and smaller drops at three fences, including Becher’s, had been positive as all the fallers returned unharmed. He added: “It is the unpredictability of the races over the National fences that make them so exciting and we don’t want to lose that.”

In many respects, the biggest controversy came when 2010 Gold Cup-winning jockey Paddy Brennan missed the ride on Pilgrims Lane in the Grand Sefton, having complained of illness to a course doctor after being well beaten on former Charlie Hall winner Nacarat.

However, Milton Harris, who saddled the horse for its trainer, Martin Keighley, insisted that Brennan had refused the ride because he felt the ground had become too soft.

The stewards referred the matter to the BHA. For the record, Pilgrims Lane unseated stand-in jockey Shane Byrne at The Chair but at least the Bingley rider can claim to have fulfilled a lifelong ambition of successfully negotiating two National fences before coming to grief.

In a month that celebrates the 50th anniversary of the incomparable Arkle’s first race, Sizing Europe confirmed himself as the Emerald Isle’s steeplechasing standard-bearer with an emphatic Grade One win in Sandown’s Tingle Creek Chase.

After Richard Johnson’s Wishfull Thinking set a suicidal pace, jockey Andrew Lynch bided his time on the reigning two-mile champion, who was dropping back in trip, before pulling an effortless eight lengths clear of former winner Kauto Star’s half-brother Kauto Stone.

Winning trainer Henry de Bromhead confirmed Sizing Europe will attempt to defend his Queen Mother Champion Chase crown before deciding whether to switch the chaser back to three miles which might be his long-term optimum. “I felt a lot of pressure coming here as the hot favourite whereas in the Queen Mother we came in under the radar,” said de Bromhead.

Kauto Stone’s trainer Paul Nicholls said his young chaser could be targeted at the Festival’s Ryanair Chase.

While the Nicholls-trained Al Ferof narrowly held on to win the Henry VIII Novices’ Chase under Ruby Walsh, the grey did not appear to be a potential two-mile champion – he will be better suited by a longer trip.

He is owned by John Hales whose late, great One Man – another exciting grey – was celebrated at Wetherby with a novice staged staged in honour of the 1998 Champion Chase hero.

That went to Moon Indigio, trained at Sedgefield by John Wade, after Realt Mor and Dougie Costello parted company at the last when holding a winning advantage.

Appropriately, two greys battled out the finish of the handicap chase, Wade’s Diamond Frontier edging Bingley trainer Sue Smith’s Shadrack on the line after two miles of exhilarating jumping.