Big Occasion cut for Coral Scottish Grand National Handicap Chase
Big Occasion is no longer the favourite to succeed in the Coral Scottish Grand National Handicap Chase Grade 3 at Ayr in England on Saturday, April 20, 2013. He is in terrific form, but there are some solid challengers up against him in the class-1 clash.
David Stevens, spokesman for Coral, said: “Rival D'Estruval has headed the market since we opened betting and looks certain to start favourite on Saturday, although Big Occasion, who proved his stamina when winning the Midlands National on heavy ground,
has been well-backed in recent days.”
He went onto say, “By contrast, the Aintree hero Auroras Encore has been easy to back, with punters at this stage not expecting him to emulate the great Red Rum by completing a famous National double, although his presence in Scotland's greatest race can
only help boost the profile of what is always one of the biggest betting heats of the year.”
Big Occasion has participated in a total of 18 races and has managed to perform well in them over the years. He is a decent chaser, but needs to improve his overall strike rate in order to get the attention of the bookies and punters.
Out of his six chase events, he has finished on top of the table once whereas secured the runner up position on the same number of times. Moreover, he finished in third place on three times, which shows that he is a good fight and doesn’t like settling for
anything less.
In his most recent race, the David Pipe’s trainee was not rated as the favourite to succeed, but proved to be quite strong. He had been given a general starting price of 6 to 1 and was up against some fierce challengers.
At the start, the six-year-old gelding struggled at the back, but started gaining positions as the race progressed. Once he got into lead, no one was able to come anywhere closer to him and he finished on top of the table by a clear distance of six lengths.
However, the track conditions suited Big Occasion back then and he might have to fight hard against some solid runners this time around.
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