While most fans of racing are focussing on next week’s Cheltenham Festival, Devon point-to-point trainer Ed Walker is looking further ahead to Aintree.
He is preparing recent Haydock Park winner My Drogo for a run in the Randox Foxhunters’ Chase, a highlight of day one of the three-day Grand National meeting which takes place from April 3 to 5. Ten-year-old My Drogo, who was bred by his owners, Richard and Lizzie Kelvin-Hughes, teed himself up for a crack at Aintree’s featured hunters’ chase when pulling clear to win the valuable Walrus Open Hunters’ Chase at Haydock last month under Will Biddick.
Prior to that he had made his point-to-point debut under Josh Newman at Larkhill in December (pictured above) when third to Givega and Douglas Longbottom – who have both won since – before returning to the Wiltshire course under Biddick to run out an easy winner of an open race.
Speaking at Didmarton last weekend, Walker said: “We thought about running him in another point-to-point or at Cheltenham, but feel the three miles, two furlongs [of the St James’s Place Festival Hunters’ Chase] would stretch him, so we’re going straight to Aintree.”
Ed Walker, suspected next week's St James's Festival Hunters' Chase at Cheltenham would stretch My Drogo's stamina (Ce)
He was joined at the track by Richard Kelvin-Hughes, who said: “He’s never jumped better [than when winning at Haydock] and he won a Grade One novices’ hurdle around Aintree when he was younger so the flat track should suit him.”
That Aintree win in 2021 was achieved when My Drogo was in training with Dan Skelton and on his way to the top of ladder. Switched to chasing the following season he scored at Cheltenham’s December meeting and was on course to return there for the Festival, but suffered a touch of heat in a leg, missed all the following season and showed little in two runs when returning to racing.
After pulling up at Exeter in February last year he was not seen again until emerging from Walker’s yard. His chase rating has dropped from a high of 155 to 142, but he will be one of the highest-rated horses in Aintree’s race.
His new trainer credits his wife, Polly Gundry, for working on My Drogo’s jumping, saying: “Polly has done all the schooling on My Drogo at home,” and while Aintree’s fences are not as stiff as they once were, they remain unique across British racecourses. Walked said: “We asked Will [Biddick] what he thought and he said the horse would jump round there.”