Mr Vango to get taste of National fences this weekend

Sara Bradstock is keen to give Mr Vango his first taste of the Grand National fences in Saturday’s Becher Chase at Aintree.

The nine-year-old emerged as a likely contender for the world’s most famous steeplechase last season by winning the London National at Sandown, the Peter Marsh Chase at Haydock and the Midlands Grand National at Uttoxeter.

Bradstock has been waiting for some ease in the ground to unleash her stable star this term and with conditions set to be on the soft on Merseyside this weekend, Mr Vango is poised to make his reappearance in a race in which the winner will claim a £500,000 bonus from William Hill if they can follow up in April.

“They’re calling it good to soft, soft in places on the National course which would do me, but I’d want it to be on the soft side of good to soft,” said Bradstock.

“It’s not going to be his favourite heavy ground, but it should be safe for him and while there is the London National at Sandown on Saturday, which he won last year, if we are half-thinking of aiming him at the National we ought to find out whether he likes the place or not.

“We schooled him over the National fences in Lambourn the other day and he didn’t really notice any difference.

“He’s obviously got top-weight, but if any horse can carry it it’s him and it won’t be too big a field, which is quite nice. If it was heavy ground and four runners that would be perfect!”

With an allotted weight of 12 stone, Mr Vango heads 19 horses to stand their ground for the three-and-a-quarter-mile contest at the confirmation stage.

Dan Skelton could saddle Galia Des Liteaux, who finished eighth in the 2024 Grand National on her first and only try over the famous fences, while Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero have left in both Gaboriot and White Rhino.

The pair finished second and ninth respectively in the shorter Grand Sefton Handicap Chase around the Grand National course four weeks ago, while Gaboriot also finished third in the same race last season.

Other contenders include Tanganyika, whose trainer Venetia Williams claimed last year’s Becher Chase with Chambard, Warren Greatrex’s 2023 Topham Chase winner Bill Baxter and Gavin Cromwell’s Irish raider Bioluminescence.