Auroras Encore set sights on Scottish Grand National Handicap Chase
Auroras Encore has set his eyes on the Coral Scottish Grand National Handicap Chase (Grade 3) at Ayr in England on Saturday, April 20, 2013. He will not find things to be easy though, as there are some quality runners up against him.
The veteran gelding has participated in a total of 44 events until now and his performances in them have been decent. However, he has been unable to maintain a good strike rate, which means that he lacks consistency at the highest level.
Despite that, he will be looking to take his opponents by surprise in the race, especially after succeeding in the John Smith’s Grand National Chase at the start of this month. He was not rated as the favourite by any means and was given a general starting
price of 66 to 1 by the bookies.
This clearly showed that the 11-year-old was not expected to make any impression in the race, thus the punters opted not to gamble much on him. However, he used all his experience to take a victory in the class-1 event.
He started off the race steadily back then and made one mistake at one point in the race. Despite that, he managed to stay in the hunt and started gaining positions as the race progressed. Once he got the lead, no one was able to come anywhere closer to
him and he secured a comfortable victory by nine lengths.
Due to this, his trainer Sue Smith has got high hopes and she stated, “He's in very good form. He has never done anything but look forward since he won the National. He has eaten well and travelled up here very well; he's not got warm or anything. The weight
is what it is but he's a very genuine little horse and always tries his hardest.”
She is also going to gamble with another one of her challengers, Fill The Power, and claimed, “He's in good order and has a light weight. Staying is really his game and, while he's a novice, I understand novices have a good record in the race.” It will be
interesting to see which one of her runners impresses the most at Ayr this time.
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