AFTER the will-he won’t-he, Ruby Walsh’s decision to partner My Will in the John Smith’s Grand National is likely to see Paul Nicholls’s nine-year-old start favourite for Saturday’s Aintree showpiece.
Walsh has landed the 4m4f marathon twice with Papillon (2000) and Hedgehunter (2005) and he is usually the man punters turn to when it comes to the big races.
He also opens the meeting partnering odds-on favourite and Ladbrokes World Hurdle winner Big Buck’s in the John Smith’s Liverpool Hurdle today.
With Walsh on board coupled with the fact there are around 500,000 people in the UK with the first name ‘William’ and nearly 300,000 have the surname ’Williams’, plus all other variations, coincidence punters will pile in with all bookmakers bracing themselves ahead of the big race.
My Will is 7-1 with most firms, with Sportingbet currently best-priced at 15-2, but William Hill are expecting money to keep pouring in.
Champion trainer Paul Nicholls is yet to win the National, but currently the betting public seem to think he will break his duck.
William Hill representative Kate Miller said: “It could be carnage for the bookies if My Will prevails on Saturday and we estimate the industry could be rocked with a payout in excess of £100million. Everyone knows someone with the name ‘Will’ and it could be our worst Grand National result for the last decade.”
Totesport’s George Primarolo added: “The Grand National market is now beginning to take shape and, barring any surprise withdrawals, My Will should head the betting when the final declarations are announced on Thursday.
“State Of Play and Offshore Account are the latest two to be cut but it’s unlikely we’ve seen the last of the gambles in this year’s race.”
With the final declarations for the National to be revealed later this morning connections of Maljimar are praying the nine-year-old makes the cut.
Currently he is 41st on the list, with a maximum 40 going to post at 4.15pm on Saturday.
Maljimar’s owner Jane Williams, also wife of trainer Nick, said: “We’ve been in the same position before with Philson Run (fourth in 2007) and managed to get into the race. But we’ve had so much bad luck with Maljimar that it wouldn’t be a surprise if we didn’t get in.
“He’s been a bit of a problem horse and we have on occasions struggled to keep him in one piece. He’s not straightforward and he tends to boil over quickly sometimes. It was heartbreaking when he got caught on the line at Cheltenham last time, as that would have been our first winner at the Festival.”
If Maljimar makes the line-up connections will be hoping he doesn’t play up during the preliminaries.
Jane Williams added: “Not to put too a fine a point on it, he went absolutely nuts in the build-up to the Paddy Power Gold Cup at Cheltenham on his first start this season and threw his chance away before the race had even started. He was much better at Cheltenham last month, but I am worried that he won’t like the preliminaries, particularly the parade, and especially if it’s a hot day.
“He’s very, very well at the moment. If we can get him down to the start without him boiling up then hopefully he’ll run well, but it’s the Grand National and you can’t get your hopes up too high.”
Meanwhile, new safety measures, including additional run-outs for riderless horses, have been added to this year’s National course.
RSPCA equine consultant David Muir said: “The RSPCA has monitored the Grand National for many years and we are thrilled that these new safety measures have been introduced.”
Aintree officials were due to continue watering on the Mildmay and Hurdle courses last night in an effort to make sure ground conditions remain ideal for the start of racing at the three-day Grand National meeting today.
The official going on both the Mildmay and Hurdles courses remains good with conditions on the Grand National course good, good to soft in places. (Going stick readings – Hurdle 7.8; Mildmay 7.6; National 7.3).
