Mome heads National charge
Grand National winner Mon Mome has been left at the head of the weights for the Coral Welsh National after 33 horses stood their ground at the confirmation stage.
The Venetia Williams-trained nine-year-old was a 100-1 winner of the Aintree spectacular in April and was not disgraced when third on his latest outing over hurdles.
Next in the weights is Alan King’s Halcon Genelardais, winner of this prize in 2006 and second and third respectively for the last two years.
Le Beau Bai heads ante-post lists after a sustained gamble and remains among the possibles, as does leading fancy The Tother One, trained by champion Paul Nicholls.
Flintoff could be the main hope for the home nation, trained by Tim Vaughan, while Companero, Silver By Nature, Operation Houdini and Old Benny are other interesting contenders.
Among the notable absentees are the Willie Mullins-trained sextet of Ballytrim, Equus Maximus, Our Monty, Beroni, Arbor Supreme and Pomme Tiepy.
The Tother One has been beaten into second on his first couple of outings of the campaign but Nicholls’ stable jockey Ruby Walsh expects him to come into his own over Chepstow’s marathon trip.
“He’s lazy and takes a bit of rousting along but the trip in the Welsh National will really suit him,” the jockey told www.sportinglife.com.
“He’s a relatively inexperienced horse, Cheltenham was only his fourth run over fences and he will improve for that.
“Going left-handed around Chepstow will suit him again. He likes soft ground and he’ll stay, which you have to over three miles, five furlongs there, so he has every chance.”
