Hughes hopes Irish seven turns up Black

Apr 5 2008 by Chris Wright, Liverpool Daily Post

DESSIE HUGHES has shown he can land some of the biggest races with outsiders on trips to England.

Now the County Kildare handler is eyeing the biggest of them all, the John Smith’s Grand National, as he saddles his first ever runner this afternoon in Black Apalachi.

Hughes famously rode Monksfield to Champion Hurdle glory in 1979 and then saddled the popular Hardy Eustace to back-to-back wins in the same Cheltenham Festival championship contest in 2004 and 2005. That first success was achieved at odds of 33-1 despite the now 11-year-old having won the Royal & SunAlliance Novices’ Hurdle at the Festival 12 months earlier.

Hughes has also tasted Aintree success when Leinster was backed down to 12-1 from big odds to land the Mersey Novices’ Hurdle in 2003. But now he is just happy to have a taste of the Aintree marathon and hopes Black Apalachi can also defy similar lofty price in the market.

He said: “Like anyone in England or Ireland I would love to win the race. It is one of biggest races around and it would be great if I could add to the Irish success of recent years. But really it is just great to finally have a runner in the race and after that everything is a bonus.

“We have had some great days with Hardy Eustace at Cheltenham when we have come to England and when Leinster won at Aintree, and every time you come over you hope to win. But the National is a tough race and a lot about luck.”

The nine-year-old has only been at Hughes’s Osborne Lodge stables since last summer, but he has a similar profile to some of the six Irish National winners of the past nine seasons, running well in some of top staying handicaps in his homeland.

He won the Paddy Power Chase at Leopardstown in 2005 when trained by Phillip Rothwell. And his second at Gowran Park in January to Priests Leap in the Thyestes Chase – a race won by recent National heroes Numbersixvalverde and Hedgehunter – reads well in context of this afternoon’s race.

Hughes said: “He is in good form and we are very happy with him. He will jump and stay but we would love a bit of rain because he likes the soft and goes on heavy. It would probably inconvenience some of the others and allow him to stay on better than most.

“This ‘fella’ will stay every yard, he is great leaper. He has all the qualifications you need for Liverpool. You never know how they take to Liverpool because you need a lot of luck there. But I think he will jump the fences okay on what I know of him.”

He added: “He has run in a lot of our good staying chases and run well, he won the Paddy Power before he came to me. He was fourth in the same race over Christmas and second in the Thyestes Chase as well, which is one of our best handicaps. He ran well enough at Leopardstown last month, but that was over 2m5f and the trip wasn’t far enough for him. He just gets outspeeded a bit over the shorter trips on ground that isn’t soft enough. But he should get every yard today. It would just be nice to have a horse to run well in the English National.”

Hughes, whose son Richard is the successful Flat jockey retained by the Khalid Abdulla, has surprisingly not had a runner in the race, although he recoils at the last time he had what he felt was a horse capable of winning the Aintree marathon.

He said: “I have just never really had the horse to run the race before. We had Timbera a couple of years. He had won the Irish National and was the favourite for the National. He looked like the one for the race. But he scoped dirty in the week leading up to the race and we didn’t send him. It was very disappointing because we were hopeful he would go very close.”

Hughes didn’t have much better luck as jockey either. He recalled: “My memories of the National as a jockey aren’t great. I rode in the race four times and never got round, so I won’t be giving Andrew too much advice. It is very hard to give orders in that race. You just hope you can carry him for the first circuit. You need a bit of luck and a bit of light and hope nothing falls in front of you. “There are a lot of dangers and then after the first circuit it pans out. We hope to just still be there with a chance.”