GINGER McCAIN said there are ‘Liverpool’ horses who come alive when faced with the daunting Aintree fences.
He should know. But that is also the case for trainers and Nigel Twiston-Davies is – like McCain before him – expert at finding and preparing horses to conquer the unique challenge of the famous spruce obstacles.
And it seems it also runs in the family as yesterday, under his 18-year-old son Sam, Twiston-Davies’s Hello Bud scored a gallant success in the totesport.com Becher Chase.
The victory has put the 12-year-old in line for another crack at the big one itself next April. Having finished an excellent fifth to Don’t Push It in the Grand National in April, the evergreen Hello Bud showed his own liking for Aintree again.
The former Scottish National hero is now as low as 20-1 with Betfred for the Aintree showpiece on April 9 and a best-priced 33-1 chance with William Hill, Paddy Power and Boylesports.
The 15-2 favourite led for much of the 3m2f contest under an expert ride from his 18-year-old pilot, who followed up his big-race success in the Paddy Power Gold Cup on his father’s Little Josh from the previous week.
Hello Bud was briefly headed by Ballyvesey, but battled back and continued to give more on the run-in to hold the challenge of Brian Hughes and Royal Rosa before scoring by a length and a quarter with One Cool Cookie (25-1) 10 lengths back third and the weakening Ballyvesey fourth.
The Naunton trainer has claimed the Grand National twice with Earth Summit (1997) and Bindaree (2002), while it was his fourth success in the Becher Chase following wins for Indian Tonic (1993), Young Hustler (1995), Earth Summit (1998).
