Cappa Bleu shows he's ready !

Cappa Bleu put up a good performance at Ascot on Saturday to show that he is ready to try and better his fourth place in last years Grand National. He had previously run second to Across The Bay at Carlisle in November and he also won over the weekend at Haydock in the Rendlesham Hurdle.

Evan Williams said about Cappa Bleu: "I'm very happy with the way he ran and we're delighted with him. He travelled quite beautifully, but we've probably blown up at the wrong stage of the race - fitness has probably caught him out between four from home and turning in - and then he's got his second breath.
"I'm delighted with the way he knuckled down after the second last and over the last, he ran to the line which was lovely to see."
"He will improve massively for that run, as I hope everybody can see. It was a three-mile race and we're running a four-and-a-half miler.
"He will come on and hopefully that will put him spot on for the Grand National. It's highly unlikely he'll go off our place again, I imagine we'll go straight there (to Aintree) but I wouldn't like to say that's set in stone."

Across The Bay however is not certain to run in the National even though connections are only down the road from the course in Lydiate being owned by The Scotch Piper Syndicate, named after the Lydiate pub.

The famous inn is the oldest pub in the historic Lancashire county boundaries and is frequented by the trio who comprise Across The Bay’s syndicate.
Co-owner Anthony Coyne told the Liverpool Echo after Saturdays race “It was a fantastic performance. He had his wind op straight after the Welsh National. He looked really good in the Welsh National all the way down the back straight second time around but Jason said he started gurgling and he might have pulled him up. But he felt the horse kept wanting to run, kept wanting to finish his race. So he nursed him and he still finished seventh. But Donald said he was working well at home, but we couldn’t be certain until he got out on the racecourse how he was going to perform after his wind op. But he kept on giving more every time he was challenged.
“We will leave it to Donald but hopefully we will head to Aintree.”

Haydock’s Betfred Grand National Trial featured just two with entries in the Aintree showpiece – the Rebecca Curtis-trained Teaforthree and Nigel Twiston-Davies’ Viking Blond – although at 76th on the list the latter may struggle to make the cut for the big one.
The former showed up well for a long way before tiring in the testing conditions to eventually come 10th of the 11 finishers. Viking Blond was fifth.

As for news on Quito De La Roque Colm Murphy has said :
"At this moment I don't know if his next race will be the Gold Cup or the Grand National, for which he has got a very workable 11st 5lb. I will discuss this with his owners before any decisions are made, but he appears to be every bit as good as ever."

It's anyones guess were Grand National entry Katenko will run next as he has not been declared for Saturdays big race at Kempton, ducking a rematch against his last conqueror Wyck Hill.