Nothing has come to light to explain the listless performance at last week’s Cheltenham Festival by Lalor, who had been strongly fancied for the Arkle for the previous four months.
Kayley Woollacott, who trains the classy chaser at her north Devon yard, said she could find nothing wrong with him and plans to run him again in just over a fortnight at Aintree’s Grand National meeting, at which he has won for the past two years.
“It’s a head-scratcher,” said Woollacott. “I think he is better on better ground but I wouldn’t be blaming the ground. He was obviously not going to win early on. Richard [Johnson] said he got bumped at the third and didn’t like it, so we’ll ride him a little bit differently at Aintree.
“We’ve gone right through him and he seems very, very well in himself. Horses have off days. It was exactly the same in the Betfair Hurdle at Newbury last year; that was another complete head-scratcher as to why he didn’t perform. He put that behind him and we just have to hope that he does that again.”
Sent off at 13-2 for the Arkle, Lalor was settled in rear by Johnson but it soon became clear the seven-year-old was having trouble keeping tabs on the field. The champion jockey was urging him forwards with almost a circuit to race and eventually pulled him up after nine of the 13 fences.
It is a source of comfort to Woollacott that Lalor will still be a fresh horse at Aintree. “He didn’t have a run at all. He wasn’t blowing, wasn’t sweating; he didn’t do anything. Richard did the right thing by pulling him up.”
Lalor’s target is the £100,000 Maghull Novice Chase, run just two hours before the Grand National itself, so Woollacott’s 12-horse yard could soon enjoy another important day in the spotlight. Lalor won the Aintree bumper on Grand National eve two years ago at 33-1 and followed up in a Grade One novice hurdle there last year, when he was still not widely fancied at 14-1.
Meanwhile, it appears Tiger Roll will get his chance to win a second Grand National, something no horse has achieved since Red Rum in the 70s. “He’s come out of Cheltenham very well so I can’t see any reason why he won’t be running there next,” his trainer, Gordon Elliott, told the Racing Post.
Whether Bryony Frost will be fit to take a ride in the National on 6 April is open to question, following her Southwell fall on Monday. Frost had shoulder x-rays taken that evening and is due to discuss them with a specialist on Wednesday.
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