It is 20 years
since Jenny Pitman trained the second of her Grand National winners,
so could 2015 provide another female-trained winner of the race?
Pitman became
the first female to train the National winner in 1983 with Corbiere
and followed up in 1995 with Royal Athlete.
There have been
two female-trained winners of the Aintree showpiece in more recent
years, with Venetia Williams saddling Mon Mome to success in 2009 and
Sue Smith sending out Auroras Encore to win two years ago.
Looking at the early
odds for the 2015 Grand National, and the two female-trained
horses who catch the eye are Shotgun
Paddy [pictured] and Teaforthree.
Shotgun Paddy is
trained by Emma Lavelle and has had this
season’s Grand National as his long-term target after
finishing second in the National Hunt Chase at the Cheltenham
Festival last year.
He was beaten
just a neck by Midnight Prayer that day, but perhaps more
interestingly, he was around three lengths ahead of Shutthefrontdoor.
Jonjo O’Neill’s horse went on to win the Irish Grand National and
is at the forefront of the market for the Aintree equivalent.
This season,
Shotgun Paddy was beaten a long way over hurdles on his reappearance
at Newbury before being burdened with top weight in the Welsh Grand
National at Chepstow.
A false start
scuppered his chances as he was slow to get going at the second
attempt before making an early mistake. He was soon pulled up by
jockey Leighton Aspell, who won last year’s National on Pineau De
Re.
The
eight-year-old will now bid to put his Grand National claims back on
track by seeking a repeat win in the Classic
Chase at Warwick on Saturday.
Shotgun Paddy
survived a far from fluent last fence jump to
win the same race 12 months ago when he was a novice and he
is now only two pounds higher in the handicap.
The going could
play a factor in Shotgun Paddy’s Grand National chances, though,
with Lavelle feeling that better ground is not necessarily a help to
the horse’s jumping.
Lavelle
also trains Highland Lodge, who had been mooted earlier in the
season as a possible National contender. However, Highland Lodge only
finished eighth in the Becher Chase at Aintree in December and looks
too low in the weights to get into the Grand National itself.
As for
Teaforthree, the Rebecca Curtis-trained 11-year-old has already had
two attempts to win the National.
In 2013,
Teaforthree finished third behind Smith’s Auroras Encore. He
travelled well for a long way and, at one stage, looked a likely
winner before running out of steam after the last.
Last year,
though, Teaforthree unseated his rider, Nick Scholfield, at the Chair
when sent off joint-favourite for the race. What
would be a concern is that Scholfield felt Teaforthree did
not have the same enthusiasm last year as he had in 2013.
Teaforthree has
not run since unseating Scholfield, but has been entered for
the Skybet
Chase at Doncaster at the end of the month, which could be
the first port of call en route to a third National tilt.
His age should
not be a barrier given that the last three winners of the National
have all been 11-year-olds. He is also still on a reasonable handicap
mark of 151, which was the same rating he had when finishing third in
2013.
The last two
female-trained winners of the National were sent off at 100/1 and
66/1, respectively, but it is hard to see Shotgun Paddy and
Teaforthree going off at those prices if they make it to the big day.