Grand National 2024 – Arizona Cardinal wins the Topham Chase

Arizona Cardinal (20-1) powered home to give trainer Stuart Edmunds and jockey Ciaran Gethings a first win over the Grand National fences with victory in the Randox Supports Race Against Dementia Topham Chase on Ladies Day at the 2024 Randox Grand National Festival at Aintree Racecourse.

The eight-year-old had secured back-to-back victories at Leicester and Ludlow coming into Aintree which allowed him to move up the handicap and get his place in the race. And in another action-packed running of the contest run over a circuit of the Grand National course Arizona Cardinal came through late to collar the Willie Mullins-trained James Du Berlais (6-1) to score by a length. Paul Nicholls' Kandoo Kid (10-1) was another length back in third with Celebre D'Allen (28-1) a short head futher adrift in fourth. Victory had been a long-term plan for the Edmunds' Buckinghamshire stable and owners the Oakman Racing Club.

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The trainer was delighted with the victory and said: "To be honest I thought we were beat, and I would have been happy with second, but he stays, and he stays three miles. He stayed on very well and we are just over the moon. You couldn’t quite believe it was happening to be honest with you. It has been the plan for a long time to come here and it has worked, Thank God.

"It is a massive emotion at the moment as the horse didn’t have the easiest beginning to the season as he had a lung infection, and it took a while to get over that. Everybody spends hours with him, I’m just the one that does the shouting. He is a lovely horse, and an absolute gentleman.

"I thought of this plan seven or eight months ago mainly because we thought his jumping was superb, and I don’t think he has made a resemblance of a mistake. We took him down to Lambourn to have a pop over the fences, and he was class. We probably tried to treat him like an out and out stayer for a while, and we ran him over three miles two at Warwick. He was bang there at the last, but then he pulled up. It sounds bonkers, but he emptied completely. This ground has probably helped us being slower over this trip.

"He could have been finished if it wasn’t for everybody getting their heads together and working out a plan. He spends an awful lot of time out in the field and that is a big help to him. This is really just the icing on the top of what has been a good season. It has been a plan, but then you see him go 14-1, 16-1 and 20-1 and you think are there better handicapped horses than us. We had to win our last two to get in the race, whereas some of the others didn’t have to win their last race to get in. It is definitely one of the most emotional winners I’ve had. I don’t smile very often do I!"

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Having shown his liking for the Aintree fences, thoughts naturally turn to whether he could a Grand National contender next year. And while Edmunds is not sure whether his stamina would stretch to the marathon trip, Edmunds will test that staying prowess with a possible run in the Becher Chase – also over the Grand National – in December. He added: "He'd jump round, quite whether he'd get that trip (I'm not sure). We might try to stretch him to the Becher Chase and give it a try. He's obviously relished the fences."

Winning jockey Gethings said: “I think I’ve gone beyond smiling, to be honest, it’s unbelievable. I love the horse, I always have. He’s just a fantastic little horse. We’ve had our troubles with him, but Sutart has trained him to the minute. I rode him at Ludlow last time when he bolted up, and I came in and said, that wasn’t the real horse, even though he won by 20 lengths, he didn’t feel like the same horse he did.

“Stuart said, that’s fine, we’ve won a few quid so we’ll spend a few quid on him. We just got him right, we brought him down to Lambourn to school, and I said to Stuart on Tuesday when we gave him a last pop, usually these races are just filling up numbers and we’re coming for a day out, but I really felt that we weren’t and that we had a good chance.

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“That’s a different feeling for me, coming here – I usually just come up and pick up spare rides or have big outsiders, but I’ve fancied him for a long time. I haven’t really told Stuart that or a lot of people, but I’ve told a lot of friends, and I ride out at Kim Bailey’s and told them as well, that I really did fancy him to run a big race and that he was made for it.

“I thought I was beat, to be honest, and that we’d be second, but he just never stopped. It’s unbelievable. He travelled a bit strong and I was a little bit outpaced over the first three, which I always thought I would be, which is why I was very keen to get some room over to the Chair. THen I was beside Paul the whole way and we had acres of room. He jumped so well he came up out of my hands at one or two, but he’s got so much scope. I passed Bassy turning in and he said, keep filling up, keep filling up. Paul came by me doing a half-speed and when we jumped the last Paul went away, but my lad has won over three miles so I knew he wouldn’t stay, I just thought we might be a bit outclassed. It was only about 10 strides before the line that I knew I was going to win, and that’s an unbelievable feeling.

“I just had a quick look up – I don’t know what I looked like and I don’t care what I looked like – and usually you are hoping the line will come to you, but I was hoping it wouldn’t come to me because I was gaining all the time. I had a quick look and I thought I had long enough to get to him and thank God I did, because finishing second would have been great but it wouldn’t have been the same feeling as I have now.

"I thought riding a Listed winner at Thurles during the winter gave me a great buzz, but this is right up there with the best day ever. My dad is here and my cousins, and my Mum is watching at home. Today tops the time I had a winner here for Stuart when we were racing without crowds – this is something else.”

READ MORE: Full list of final 34 runners for the 2024 Grand National

Anthony Bromley, racing manager to owners Simon Munir and Isaac Souede, said of the runner-up James Du Berlais: “We are very proud of him and Daryl (Jacob) said he would love that sort of test around those fences as he takes you into a fence. "Paul (Townend) said he had an excellent spin. He didn’t need to be leading at the last, but he said he jumped it so well he landed in front. It was a long way up the run in and I suspect the weight probably just told at that point as he had given it his all. You would come and have another go at this race, but you wouldn’t go another circuit as he travels too strongly for that. I’d say he will come back for this race next year.”

On the third Kandoo Kid trainer Nicholls, trainer added: “Thrilled with that. He’s only a novice, so he’s improving and we thought he’d get the trip. He was staying on really strongly. I’ve always thought I might start him next season in the Coral Gold Cup – he loves Newbury, he’s got to go left-handed and he’ll definitely get a trip, because all he does now is stay. He jumps great, so he might end up back here in the National one day.”

Willie Mullins' Dancing City (4-1) - who had been third in the Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle at last month's Cheltenham Festival, went a couple of places better to win in the Grade One Cavani Sartorial Menswear Sefton Novices’ Hurdle. The seven-year-old reversed the form with The Jukebox Man (85-40 favourite), who had been a head in front of him at Cheltenham, to come through under Paul Townend and win by five-and-a-half lengths, with Dan Skelton's Cherie D'Am (7-1) a further seven-and-a-half lengths back in third.

Mullins said: "It was a great ride from Paul because the game looked up crossing the bottom for about five or six strides and Paul even thought the game was up himself when he was off the bridle. But Paul just sat and sat and nursed him until they got over the last because it took some getting. They finished very tired and the second horse was especially tired, it was testing ground out there so it was a good performance. It's taken a long time for him to show me he's the horse we thought he was when we bought him. A few times we thought we should maybe ship him on, but he's come right now and he's going to make an exciting novice chaser. My father always used to say to me 'patience' which obviously at the time I didn't really understand, but some horses just need time to come to themselves.

"He could have easily thrown in the towel today when he was off the bridle but he didn't, and that's the difference between the good ones and the bad ones and he looks another good one for Joe Donnelly."

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