Aintree News
10.02.2010
From the moment Black Apalachi fell at Becher's when leading the Aintree Grand National field on the final circuit in last year's race, connections have been planning a return to visit that will hopefully have a happier ending.
It's impossible to say whether Dessie Hughes' grand staying chaser would have gone on to win the world's greatest steeplechase, but there is little doubt he was still going well and he clearly loves the challenge of the Aintree fences having won the Becher Chase at the track six months earlier.
A horse with a touch of class as well as the ability to stay extreme distances Black Apalachi was in great form last year and attracted a substantial number of horse racing tips on the day. He won both the Becher Chase and the Grade 2 Bobbyjo Chase at Fairyhouse where he handed out a severe drubbing to Snowy Morning, another Aintree regular.
This season the 11-year-old had to wait until late January to make his bow having been thwarted a number of times by abandoned fixtures. He was clearly in need of the outing when finishing well down the field in a Leopardstown handicap hurdle. With that race under his belt Hughes' gelding has been pencilled in for a return visit to Fairyhouse to defend his title in the Bobbyjo Chase before coming back to Aintree to try his luck again in the John Smith's Grand National on April 10th.
Hughes was himself a great jockey before turning his hand to training. He won the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Davy Lad in 1977 and two years later partnered the great Monksfield to a famous success in the Champion Hurdle. Although he's had some high-class performers as a trainer, the father of top flat jockey Richard Hughes remains as determined as ever to win the Grand National, a race that consistently eluded him during his riding days.
If Hughes can get his charge in the right shape then you can expect plenty of Grand National free bets to be staked on Black Apalachi.
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