PAUL NICHOLLS has played down Denman’s possible run in this year’s John Smith’s Grand National, but connections of Ollie Magern are keen to head for the Aintree showpiece on April 4.
Denman’s main aim is landing back-to-back Cheltenham Gold Cups, and the nine-year-old would only head to Aintree in the event of something going amiss at the Festival.
Nicholls’ star is yet to run since landing the Gold Cup last March after suffering from a fibrillating heart, but is due to make his return in the Aon Chase at Newbury on February 7.
Last weekend champion trainer Nicholls said Denman – who is 7-4 favourite with Stan James and BetDirect for the Gold Cup – would be entered for the National, for which he is also market leader at a best-priced 8-1 with most firms. But yesterday Nicholls said: “We’ve entered Denman for the Grand National but that is as far as it has got at this stage. If he has a hard race in the Gold Cup like last year that would make it improbable but if something went wrong or he fell at the first, we’d kick ourselves if he wasn’t entered. It will be some time before a final decision so any speculation before then is exactly that.”
Connections of Ollie Magern would prefer Denman to run at Aintree, but whatever happens the Grand National will be the aim for Nigel Twiston-Davies’ 11-year-old.
Ollie Magern is not quoted in most of the bookmakers markets for the National, but traded at 78-1 on Betfair last night.
The dual Charlie Hall Chase winner, who was fifth to Nozic in the skybet.com Rowland Meyrick Chase at Wetherby over Christmas, may head to Cheltenham first, but Aintree is firmly on the agenda.
Twiston-Davies’s head lad Fergal O Brien said: “He’ll have several options at Cheltenham but he’s not in the Gold Cup. I think that his main target will be the Grand National. It would be wonderful if Denman ran at Aintree because that would give Ollie a real fighting chance with a decent weight. Ultimately, that’s his aim.”
O’Brien thinks the National may be the ideal race for Ollie Magern.
He added: “He’s not very big, but he jumps beautifully, he’s very accurate and very neat and that is what you need around there and if he got into a nice rhythm and he was in off a nice weight, and in good-form, fresh and well, you know he could run a fantastic race.”
Ollie Magern was only just denied a hat-trick of wins in the Wetherby’s Charlie Hall Chase earlier this season when beaten into second by State Of Play and O’Brien said: “If you think back to his race against State Of Play was probably better than when he beat him the year before. He was 16lb wrong with State Of Play, and he gave him a real run for his money, only beaten about a length and a half, it was a very good performance.”
Ollie Magern’s may run next at Cheltenham in the Letherby & Christopher Chase on Festival Trials Day January 24, with O’Brien adding: “We’ll give him a run at the end of January and then we’ll see where we go. He’ll either go straight to the National or Cheltenham. I don’t think he could do both.”
A couple of places ahead of Ollie Magern at Wetherby over Christmas was Donald McCain junior’s Cloudy Lane. The Trevor Hemmings-owned nine-year-old is also on target to run in the Grand National again after he finished sixth last April.
He could be back on Merseyside a week tomorrow for the Peter Marsh Chase at Haydock.
McCain said: “He ran a nice (when third in the Rowland Meyrick) but I still think there is a little bit of improvement to come for whatever reason.
“Jason (Maguire) said he didn’t enjoy the ground down the back at Wetherby at all, hence he didn’t jump as well as he can.
“He ran nicely up the straight though and was staying on all the way to the line, he’s going the right way and will be entered in the Peter Marsh at Haydock and he’ll almost certainly go there as long as we can get the graft into him. The Grimthorpe which he won last year is a possibility also, as it is for Idle Talk as well who is also aimed by Mr Hemmings and being aimed at the National too, he’s just having a break now.”
TODAY’S NAP: King’s Alchemist (2.30pm Lingfield).
