Donald McCain confident of Ballabriggs’ better show at Aintree
Trainer Donald McCain is confident of Ballabriggs’ improved performance at Aintree than the one he demonstrated at Kelso on Saturday.
Since his fantastic victory in the Grand National last year, the 11-year-old made his first outing last weekend.
His connections were expecting him to resume his journey with a victory, but the gelding failed to do so.
In the in the Totepool.com Premier Chase at Kelso, he finished fourth behind Master Of The Hall, who was holding the highest odds of 6 to 4.
Yet, it was an impressive run by last year’s Grand National winner. Despite failing to grab a decent lead early on, Ballabriggs did a fine job to overcome his deficit.
Following his brilliant jumping, he managed to take a reasonable lead after the 10th fence. However, a slight error at the open ditch took the advantage away from him, as he missed third position by three and a half lengths.
Apart from that mistake, the Trevor Hemmings-owned displayed a wonderful show especially over hurdles. Recapping Ballabriggs’ run at Kelso, McCain claimed that his trainee will be even better in the Grade 3 John Smith's Grand National Chase, to be held in
April this year.
He said:
"He's good and he came back fine and ate up so there's no problems. Jason [Maguire] said he thought he ran a little better than last year and he's a big horse and I wanted to let people know that before the race.”
"The first time we schooled him back he was excellent and he jumped really well on Saturday. It's almost a little bit like they're not big enough for him now and he was hurdling a few and reached for one and made a little mistake but it was fine," the handler
added.
Ballabriggs, carrying the odds of 16 to 1 with Paddy Power, is among the strongest contenders for the Grand National prize. One dangerous gelding who can spoil his party is Prince De Beauchene, the 7-1 favourite with Paddy Power.
Ahead of Aintree where he will be defending his title, Ballabriggs is due to run in the JLT Specialty Handicap Chase, being held at Cheltenham on March 13.
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