Willie Mullins takes aim at Coral Scottish Grand National in bid to land British trainer's title

Willie Mullins looks like being mob-handed in Saturday’s Coral Scottish Grand National at Ayr as the Irish training legend seeks to land his first British trainers’ championship.

The County Carlow based wizard moved ahead of the leading British contenders Dan Skelton and Paul Nicholls with the victory of I Am Maximus in Saturday’s Grand National at Aintree and immediately vowed to send a large team to Scotland this weekend.

No Irish trained horse has EVER won the Scottish Grand National at Ayr although a horse called Huntsman won the race at its pre-1966 venue of Bogside in Irvine back in 1869.

A total of 71 horses were entered for this year’s £200,000 feature over nearly 4 miles and Mullins will field a maximum of 6 of the final 30-strong field once the current remaining entry of 36 is whittled down to the safety limit on Thursday morning.

Mr Incredible is the highest-rated of the possible Mullins runners but bookmakers have seen money for Macdermott and the aptly-named Klarc Kent. The 6 year-old Spanish Harlem is no forlorn hope either and punters likely to latch on to whichever horse becomes the intended mount for stable-jockey Paul Townend.

Skelton could saddle Sail Away and/or Ballygrifincottage while Nicholls will almost certainly chase the lion’s share of Ayr’s two hundred grand with top weight Stay Away Fay, although both Broken Halo and Flash Collonges are also on standby to board the horsebox for the long trip north from Ditcheat in Somerset.

The leading home contender this year looks to be Nick Alexander’s Elvis Mail which was taken out on the morning of the race last year due to quickening ground.

There’s no chance of the word “soft” being left out of Clerk of the Course Graeme Anderson’s going description this weekend though and Elvis Mail proved his well-being at Carlisle the other day with an easy success which looked to have left plenty in the tank for a seasonal swansong over 4 miles at Ayr.

Lucinda Russell won the race with Mighty Thunder a couple of years ago and the trainer might be regretting not giving Corach Rambler an insurance policy of an entry at Ayr after the horse’s first fence departure at Aintree on Saturday.

The Russell team could still be represented by Edinburgh National winner Inis Oirr but Monday’s Kelso runner Your Own Story looks unlikely to get the chance of trying to improve on last year’s sixth place with several above him in the weights required to come out before Saturday.

This year’s race is the focal point of Scotland’s first ever £500,000 raceday and the other main event on Saturday is the £100,000 Coral Scottish Champion Hurdle which has 25 remaining possible runners after Monday’s latest confirmations.

Last year’s winner Rubaud heads the weights for trainer Paul Nicholls but title-chasing Mullins has left four horses in the race with Alvaniy, Ocastle Des Mottes, Bialystok and Westport Cove all still possible contenders for an event which was last won by an Irish-trained runner when Anna Bunina won for John McConnell in 2022.

Ewan Whillans’ improving Cracking Rhapsody could be an interesting contender with charity horse Doddiethegreat (owned by Kenny Alexander and running for the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation) left in by the gradually returning to form Nicky Henderson who won the race with Verdana Blue in 2019 and River Ceiriog, way back in 1986.

This year’s Coral Scottish Grand National will be run 50 years to the day since Red Rum made racing history by completing the Grand National (Aintree) and Scottish Grand National double in the same year (1974), the only horse EVER to do so.

Ayr Racecourse will unveil a plaque commemorating the legendary chaser’s unique achievement before the first race on Saturday and a statue of Red Rum is already situated outside Western House Hotel after being commissioned and unveiled in 1975.

Red Rum ran in four Scottish Grand Nationals in 1972, 1974, 1975 and 1977, his win 50 years ago in 1974 coming 3 weeks after Aintree, with a 6lbs penalty taking his weight to 11-13 in his TENTH race of a season which had started at Perth in September and included a short-head second in the Hennessy Gold Cup.