Gavin Cromwell reached racing’s pinnacle with Cheltenham Gold Cup success last month and will attempt to seal a landmark season by landing local glory in Easter Monday’s €500,000 Boylesports Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse. The Co Meath trainer saddles seven runners in Ireland’s richest jumps race off at 5pm and live on RTÉ 2.
It has already been a momentous campaign for the 50-year-old ex-farrier based just 20 minutes from the Ratoath track. Rapidly closing in on €2 million prize money in Ireland, Cromwell has broken into the top three in the trainers’ table here.
Inothewayurthinkin’s Gold Cup is a standout feat, but it came on the back of a run of success in top handicaps both here and in Britain. Flooring Porter in last September’s Kerry National and Perceval Legallois in the Paddy Power over Christmas are among the highlights. But even by Gold Cup standards local success in an Irish National would prove special.
Despite Willie Mullins’s dominance almost everywhere else, four of the last six Nationals have produced local winners.
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One was Gordon Elliott who matches Cromwell with his own seven-strong team on Monday. Tom Gibney won with Intense Raffles a year ago and he’s back with Kinturk Kalinisi, while Dermot McLoughlin’s 2022 hero Lord Lariat has another shot at the lucrative prize.
Cromwell has yet to even hit the frame in the race but is attacking this renewal in force.
Bioluminescence is part of a JP McManus quartet that also includes the popular veteran Any Second Now. She is the only one of Cromwell’s septet carrying more than 11st and in quite testing conditions that could prove significant.
The most popular Cromwell contender in ante-post betting has been Now Is The Hour, who was still a contender in Cheltenham’s National Hunt Chase when exiting at the second last.
That was ultimately won by Haiti Couleurs, who represents the all-Welsh team of Rebecca Curtis and Sean Bowen. Along with Johnnywho they will try to be the first cross-channel winners in over a decade.
Haiti Couleurs showed an impressive combination of jumping and galloping power at Cheltenham, and gets in under the 11st mark, while Paul Nolan’s Kim Muir winner Daily Present lurks even lower down the weights.
At the bottom is Noble Birth for whom Cromwell has snapped up the services of Cork rider Daniel King.
This one has been through the Elliott, Charles O’Brien and Eric McNamara stables during his career before fetching up at Cromwell’s, for whom he won third time out at Fairyhouse in January.
Noble Birth is far from the top rank, but he won impressively that day on soft ground and has crept his way into the race due to defections. Although absent since January it means his official rating of 132 is intact.
“I’d say he’d be pretty versatile in terms of the ground and he’s been working well,” Cromwell said. “He’s maybe lacking a run. I’m sorry I didn’t give him a run over hurdles but he’s as fit as we can get him at home, and he seems in good order.”
Will Do supporters will hope the last horse into the race can be first home. The second reserve was third behind Haiti Couleurs at Cheltenham and ran behind Nick Rockett in the Thyestes.
For once Mullins doesn’t look likely to figure front and centre of most National calculations, although his two hopes are far from out of the picture.
Quai De Bourbon is one of a quartet running for Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary. His last two form figures are an unpromising ‘b’ and ‘u’ but he hasn’t actually fallen and does bring a touch of quality. Sa Majeste is a course winner that ran third in the Kim Muir.
Malina Girl is another Cromwell contender with a shot at National success but ultimately Noble Birth could prove a value each-way option for the 153rd Irish Grand National.
Earlier on the Easter Monday card, Kopeck De Mee can start delivering on some of the hype surrounding him in a Grade Two hurdle. He failed to deliver at Cheltenham in the Martin Pipe on his debut for Mullins but did much better at Aintree when looking unlucky not to overhaul Wellington Arch.
