Betfair Grand National – 2
Kim Bailey, trainer of the 1990 winner Mr Frisk, has decided to switch his
decent staying chaser Midnight Haze from his original target of the Irish
Grand National at Fairyhouse to a bid for the John Smith’s Grand National at
Aintree on April 14 instead, writes Elliot Slater.
Although he is ranked, in
Grand
National 2012 betting stakes, 49th of the 59 entries still left in the
contest and only 40 will get into the race, Bailey is hopeful that his
10-year-old will make the starting line-up and improve on his most recent
effort when a creditable sixth in the dizzying Glenfarclas Cross Country
Chase behind Balthazar King at the Cheltenham Festival last month. Sean
Quinlan, who partnered the son of Midnight Legend for the first time at
Cheltenham, will keep the ride and be in the plate for the
four-and-a-half-mile marathon that will be screened live to more than 600
million television viewers across the globe.
Bookmakers don’t appear too frightened of Bailey adding to his success in
the race some 22 years ago and rate Midnight Haze at between 50/1 to 125/1
in places, but after the 100/1
horse race betting
shock success of Mon Mome in the 2009 renewal all racing fans and
once-a-year punters know that it is very hard to discount the chance of any
performer if the breaks go his way over the uniquely challenging and
gruelling Merseyside course.
A winner of five of his 15 career starts, Bailey’s gelding has won twice at
Ludlow this season over trips in excess of three miles and has gradually
been rising up the handicap having started the term off a mark of 120 before
rising to a rating of 137, putting him in the original Grand National
handicap right on the 10 stone mark, set to receive plenty of weight from
the big guns such as Synchronised, Ballabriggs, Burton Point and Midnight
Chase.