O’Regan chases crown aboard King

The answer is Denis O’Regan, the former Yorkshire-based rider, who coaxed a career-best performance out of the frontrunning Black Apalachi before the McCoy-inspired Don’t Push It pulled clear at the 30th and final fence.

This year O’Regan, who has suffered an injury-plagued season since splitting with top Northern trainer Howard Johnson and going freelance, rides King Fontaine, the progressive eight-year-old chaser trained by Malton’s Malcolm Jefferson.

The colours will certainly be familiar – the horse is owned by Trevor Hemmings whose yellow and green quartered silks, and white sleeves, were carried to victory by Ruby Walsh and Hedgehunter in 2005.

And, while King Fontaine disappointed some when pulling up in Haydock’s Grand National trial that was run in unsuitably heavy ground, he was a fast finishing fifth to Bensalem at Cheltenham – a performance that offers hope, and confidence, to connections.

“He’s got a cracking chance and it is nice to go to Aintree slightly under the radar – Ballycassidy, Bewleys Berry and Black Apalachi have all been well fancied,” O’Regan, 29, told the Yorkshire Post.

“He has a nice weight and no pressure. Maybe he can do it. With 10st 6lb he’s unexposed, so I’m hoping he can run a good race, that he’ll get round first and hopefully he’ll go well off his light weight.

“Obviously you need a lot of luck just to get round. You only start to think about winning when you cross the Melling Road for the last time and turn for home.

“People say I should have won two years ago when tipping up at Becher’s second time round on Black Apalachi while leading, but I’m not sure.

“Last year was different. Take the winner out of it and we would have won by 30 lengths. Black Apalachi was that good. It was hard to take, but we were beaten by a better horse on the day. McCoy had waited 15 years. Now he’s had his turn, hopefully I won’t have to wait that long.

“It’s why you only think about winning when you cross the Melling Road for the last time and turn for home.”

Jefferson concurs. A naturally cautious individual, his only previous runner – the well-fancied Brooklyn Brownie – was a second fence faller two years ago. Understandably, he is hoping for better luck on Saturday.

Yet, since Hemmings switched King Fontaine from the yard of champion trainer Paul Nicholls to Jefferson’s stable nearly two years ago, the horse has won six races.

“He’s done nothing wrong, he’s in good form, but you do need a bit of luck,” said Jefferson. “The good thing is that he is an out-and-out stayer and I was very pleased with how he was running on at Cheltenham.

“It was a fair race – there were some good horses in front of him – but he was running on which is a good sign. He’s not a massive horse, he’s a ball of muscle, but the big thing is to keep out of trouble – and then edge into the race.”

They are tactics that O’Regan is well-qualified to deploy; his association with Inglis Drever, the brilliant staying hurdler, was famed for his hold-up tactics which he usually followed to perfection.

Yet, since splitting with Johnson after three successful seasons that saw the combination dominate Yorkshire jump racing with multiple wins, O’Regan has endured a frustrating year following the move to Berkshire.

He broke his leg, curtailing his efforts to forge new racing partnerships, and then the bad weather intervened. In recent times, a naturally confident O’Regan has been struggling with a back injury while hoping to discover the horse that would carry him back to centre stage.

King Fontaine, he hopes, could be that horse. “It’s been an up-and-down year with around 40 winners, which is way down on my time at Howard’s,” added the jockey who won the 2008 Arkle Trophy on Tidal Bay, one of Saturday’s opponents.

“I’ve been a bit disillusioned. I could have gone back to Ireland or moved south, and I did the latter, but there are so few top jobs around. It’s tough and I need to get on a bit of a roll again.

“I could do with getting on a class horse again. I have a lot of belief in my ability but God has a great way of giving you a kick up the backside.

“It will only take one horse to bring the magic back and it would be ironic if the National, the hardest race of them all to land, was the one to do it. I’ve been likened to a comeback kid – it would be some comeback, wouldn’t it?”