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Horse Racing

Grand National bid all but ruled out for star stayer Native River by owner

STAYING ace Native River is unlikely to be Grand National bound this spring.

Colin Tizzard’s former Gold Cup champ scooted home in Saturday’s Denman Chase and his trainer admitted he was tempted by the Aintree showpiece.

Jockey Jonjo O’Neill Junior stepped into Richard Johnson’s shoes on Saturday

But Tizzard faced an uphill battle to convince the horses owner and Garth Broom has urged punters to keep their pennies in their pockets for now.

Broom said: “It will be interesting to see what weight he gets, but his main aim this year is the Gold Cup.

“If he has a hard race it’s only three weeks to the National – so I wouldn’t advise anyone to put any money on him, because if he runs his race I don’t know if he’d have enough recovery time. He goes well fresh.

“Maybe next season it could be more of a target – when he’ll be 11 and the Gold Cup looks a little unrealistic – but if something happened and he couldn’t run in the Gold Cup then we’d still have another option.”

Broom admits the prospect of the National fences daunts connections, but could still see him being tempted next season.

He added: “The thing is I think the horse is brave enough for the National – but I don’t know if the owners are! We get so uptight, even on Saturday. We love him so much.

“With your head, he looks ideal for the National. But the problem is the owners, not the horse – we’ve got so attached to him. If anything happened we’d never forgive ourselves.

“If he’s fit and well next season it’s more likely. This season it’s more on stand-by. If he runs his race in the Gold Cup I couldn’t see him running, but we’re not ruling it completely out at this stage.

“He wins his races by making all – but can you make all over four and a quarter miles? That’s the million dollar question, I suppose.”

Reflecting on Saturday’s romp at Newbury, Broom said: “It was the perfect result. He’s got a real following now – he’s spent time as a forgotten horse, but I think he’s been so consistent for so long he’s earned his place now.

“He’s still never been out of the first four over fences. Possibly winning the Gold Cup left its mark on him last season – (that race) seems to have done so to Might Bite, but Dicky (Johnson) said at Aintree he felt a different horse to at any stage last season.

“He’s the horse of a lifetime, we realise that. If he runs to the form he’s shown this season he should be bang there again in the Gold Cup. Obviously some younger ones are coming through – they always are – but he’ll make the others know they’ve had a race, that is almost certain.

“He doesn’t need it heavy in the Gold Cup. He actually handles good ground really well – it’s just the others don’t handle heavy as well as he did.

“He also had a new jockey on Saturday, and I thought young Jonjo (ONeill) did exceptionally well on him.”