Scottish Grand National for Al Co

Sunday 13 April 2014, 10:41am

Trainer Peter Bowen is dreaming of Aintree glory next year with Al Co after the nine-year-old landed a shock win in the Scottish Grand National at Ayr.

Jamie Moore, fresh from his win on Sire De Grugy in the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham, steered the 40-1 chance to a famous victory.

There was a bit of scare in the run home when Al Co was spooked and veered to the right but he gathered himself to record a 1-1/2 length verdict over 2013 winner Godsmejudge (16-1).

"He'll be aimed at the Grand National next season," Bowen said. That's the long-term plan.

"I didn't see what happened on the run-in. I'd got four horses to watch and it was a job to keep an eye on them all.

"This race has always been the plan and he runs well fresh.

"He got the front too soon, but there was nothing he could do about it and I have a lot of faith in Jamie.

"He was in the best form we've ever had him.

Moore said he was lucky not to come off.

"I hit the front soon enough, but you know Peter's horses are going to run to the line," Moore said.

"Twice up the run-in he spooked twice at boards or something. I honestly nearly fell off twice and thank God I didn't."

The veteran Tidal Bay finished seventh after his early exit from the Grand National a week earlier.

Paul Nicholls revealed there were no plans to retire the 13-year-old just yet.

"There had been talk of Tidal Bay retiring, but he will definitely stay in training next season, as long as he is fit and well," he said.

– PAA

Latest News

Prime Thoroughbreds - We have a Host of Leaders in our Team

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Prime Thor­ough­bred’s cur­rent rac­ing team is putt­ing to­gether quite a re­cord. We have 22 hors­es that have raced in our team at pre­sent. Six­teen of th­ese are win­n­ers in­clud­ing the Stakes win­n­ing trio Ru­bisa­ki, Fituese and Xtreme­time with Miss Di­vine Em and Miss In Charge run­n­ing 4th in Stakes races. This sees a stakes win­n­er to win­n­er ra­tio of 18.75% with a stake’s per­formed to win­n­er ra­tio of 31.25%. Th­ese are ex­cep­tio­n­al fig­ures.   More »

Freedmans land maiden Group One win

Saturday, 27 February 2021

Un­der-rat­ed fil­ly For­bid­den Love has emerged as an au­tumn car­ni­val smokey with a bril­liant per­for­mance to win the Sur­round Stakes at Rand­wick.  More »

Capriccio completes Damian Lane treble

Saturday, 27 February 2021

In a big day for coun­try-trained hors­es, War­r­nam­bool fil­ly Capric­cio has tak­en out the In­glis Dash for Daniel Bow­man.  More »

More news headlines »